Bank under pressure as granny turns hunger striker

THE boss of the Financial Conduct Authority is pressuring banking group CYBG over its treatment of small business customers as a grandmother prepares to become the second hunger striker outside the lender’s office.

Andrew Bailey intervened after several business owners complained that their companies collapsed due to loan mis-selling by CYBG’s Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank.

Scottish property developer John Guidi, 63, has been starving himself on the pavement outside the Glasgow HQ of Clydesdale Bank. Bailey is demanding that CYBG and its chief executive David Duffy ‘sort this out’.

The Mail on Sunday understands victim groups are pushing for their complaints to be examined in an independent judge-led review. In May, after working with Bailey, Lloyds Bank appointed retired High Court judge Sir Ross Cranston to examine its handling of customer complaints relating to fraud at its HBOS Reading unit.

CYBG will come under further pressure tomorrow when Anne Peters, 60, starts a hunger strike outside its Glasgow office. She will replace Guidi, who is having to stop his protest for health reasons.

Mrs Peters and her husband, Jack, 62, blame CYBG for the collapse of their hotels business.

Like Guidi, they say they were mis-sold bank loans with conditions attached that ramped up interest rates on their debts. They now face having to sell their home.

Mrs Peters said: ‘This bank has destroyed our business. They’ve destroyed our lives.’