LONDON (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) is facing more pressure over its handling of a fraud at its HBOS Reading business that took place more than a decade ago, with the chair of Britain’s Treasury Committee calling for “maximum transparency” over the affair.
The intervention by committee chair Nicky Morgan follows the publication of an internal 2013 Lloyds report last week, which alleges serious misconduct by the bank over its handling and disclosure of the fraud.
Morgan, who described the report’s allegations as “deeply troubling”, has written to fellow member of parliament Kevin Hollinrake, saying the committee had taken a close interest in the case and could “engage constructively” with it once investigations into the matter have been completed.
“It is then that we will have more clarity on who knew what, and when,” she wrote, adding that she would press for speedy conclusions to the investigations and that specific allegations could then be put to the bank.
Morgan’s intervention turns up the heat on Lloyds and regulators over the fraud, one of Britain’s worst-ever banking scandals for which six people were jailed for a total of 47 years last year.
A Lloyds spokesman said on Wednesday the bank supported the investigations into the fraud, welcomed Morgan’s statement and would assist the committee in its consideration of the matter.
“Lloyds Banking Group remains determined to get to the bottom of what happened in HBOS Reading and we share the Treasury Committee’s desire for transparency,” the spokesman said in a statement.
A cross-party group of lawmakers, headed by Hollinrake, last week called for “full, forensic and expeditious” investigations by
