24th Jan 2020 09:17
(Alliance News) - Lloyds Banking Group PLC is set to write off tens of millions of pounds in debt that arose from the lender's scandal-ridden HBOS Reading branch, Sky News reported Friday.
Sky said Lloyds has written to 191 fraud victims this week, letting them know their debt will be written off.
An independent review released last month recommended the debt be written off. Lloyds has previously committed to handing a GBP35,000 one-off payment to each affected customer.
Now, however, Lloyds has said it is "extending the scope of the debt write-off measure introduced in the Customer Review to include customers who had either repaid their debts to HBOS or had refinanced their debts with another financial institution prior to the commencement of the Customer Review."
In a letter to the former HBOS Reading customers, seen by Sky News, Jo Harris, Lloyds Bank's managing director, said its original approach had "unintentionally caused us to treat participants who were in the Customer Review inconsistently".
https://news.sky.com/story/lloyds-to-write-off-hbos-reading-fraud-debts-11915722
Lloyds has had to clean up the fraud at HBOS, which it took over in a rescue deal in 2008. A group of bankers and business consultants exploited credit policies to steal from the bank, harming small and medium-sized businesses in the process. Six people were jailed in January 2017.
Shares in Lloyds were 1.7% higher in London on Friday morning at 58.40 pence each.
By Paul McGowan; [email protected]
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