Lloyds TSB Calls House

Hot or Not / Editor / 31 October 2008 / Leave a comment

THERE is a rumour sweeping the City of London that Business Secretary Peter Mandelson might rubber-stamp the Lloyds TSB HBOS merger deal creating Britain's largest bank as early as today.

Only two of the top jobs in the proposed newly merged superbank...which is already in hock to the British government for £billions... will go to the Scottish-based bank. All the other top executive positions will go to ex Lloyds-TSB staff.

The horrible truth of that is this: the Halifax was the leading Building Society in Britain, it had by far and away more mortgages than anyone else.

The Bank of Scotland was particularly strong in the banking sector as the top bank mortgage lender. When the two joined to become HBOS it was the largest mortgage lender, by miles, in the UK it outstripped every other single mortgage lender.

Lloyds-TSB scarcely entered the ratings.

If this deal goes ahead Lloyds-TSB is picking up the majority share of the UK mortgage book for next to nothing.

Little wonder the Lloyds-TSB chief executive Eric Daniels is already promising Lloyd's staff fat bonuses this Christmas...the boy's done well.

Bingo! Lloyds TSB wins in the long run.

And you could make the bet...