Victims of HBOS frauds call for cover-up probe
As City watchdog backs our Tribunal call...
VICTIMS of the HBOS Reading frauds have called on police to investigate an alleged cover-up of the crimes, a year after six bankers and advisers were convicted over their abuse of banking clients.
Five entrepreneurs have written a public letter to Thames Valley Police demanding a probe.
One of the signatories is Joanne Dove, whose ecological nappy business was forced under by HBOS in 2004. Another who signed is Karl Capp, a media executive who had set up a LinkedIn-style networking business.
None of the quintet has yet received compensation from Lloyds, which now owns HBOS. Mr Capp said: ‘The bank is controlling the process. They’re marking their own homework.’
Lloyds said it was co-operating with an FCA investigation of the HBOS Reading affair and was ‘determined to get to the bottom of what went on’. Thames Valley Police said it would review any evidence presented by the victims. Separately, RBS boss Ross McEwan is preparing to face MPs on the Treasury Select Committee who will this week quiz him over his bank’s controversial GRG unit, which plundered small firms for fees when it should have been nursing them back to health.
And as anger grows over the banks’ treatment of business customers, the UK’s top financial regulator has said he is prepared to back a new independent Tribunal to resolve disputes. The remarks by Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, could prove a major breakthrough in The Mail on Sunday’s campaign for justice for entrepreneurs by setting up an independent body to settle rows. There are two options: an extension of the Financial Ombudsman Service, the choice favoured by banks, or a Tribunal.
Most customers believe a Tribunal is a better solution, though it would require new legislation.
The FCA wants to extend the Ombudsman Service to allow thousands of small firms to use it for the first time, but Bailey says he is prepared to back a Tribunal if this is what MPs want. ‘I’ve supported [a Tribunal] in comments I’ve made in the past,’ he said. ‘If Parliament wants a Tribunal system, I’ll support it.’