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Pressure mounts on Lloyds to release full report on £1bn HBOS fraud scandal

November 11, 2024

Lloyds Banking Group faces mounting pressure from MPs, business groups, and a staff union to release the full, unredacted findings of the Dame Linda Dobbs review, a report examining Lloyds’ handling of a £1 billion fraud at HBOS, which the bank acquired in 2009.

The delay has drawn criticism, with figures like Lord Tyrie, former Treasury committee chairman, labelling the protracted process as “itself becoming a scandal.”

The review, commissioned in 2017 and initially expected to take a “matter of months,” aims to investigate whether Lloyds covered up the HBOS Reading branch fraud, where bankers and consultants exploited reckless lending practices to steal from the bank. The scandal wreaked havoc on small businesses, leaving victims in financial ruin and resulting in the jailing of six people in 2017.

Despite the initial commitment in 2018 by Lloyds to share the review’s findings, the bank has yet to clarify whether this will include the full report. Former Treasury committee chair Baroness Morgan of Cotes expressed disappointment, stating she “expected to see a full, unredacted report—not just the conclusions.”

Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake, former business minister, has joined the call for transparency, urging Lloyds CEO Charlie Nunn to release the full report. In a letter, he wrote, “This report was commissioned to bring clarity, transparency and accountability following one of the most significant banking scandals in recent memory.” Hollinrake warned of the long-term implications of withholding information from the public.

Lobbying groups SME Alliance and Transparency Task Force, representing victims of the fraud, have expressed similar frustrations, emphasising that Lloyds should not control the publication of a report into alleged misconduct within its own operations. SME Alliance stated, “Lloyds should not be allowed to control the publication strategy for a report looking into an alleged cover-up that Lloyds itself perpetrated.”

Lord Tyrie added that the committee has a “great opportunity to reassert parliament’s commitment to transparency.” He suggested that if Lloyds does not cooperate, MPs could compel key witnesses to testify or apply additional parliamentary pressure to access the full report.

BTU, the largest independent union for Lloyds staff, has written to Treasury Committee chair Dame Meg Hillier, requesting that Dobbs appear before MPs to explain the delays. Dobbs, who favours transparency, has indicated that the availability of witnesses has contributed to the report’s extended timeline, now stretching over six years.

In response to the latest calls for transparency, a Lloyds spokesperson reiterated the bank’s commitment to sharing the review’s findings but stopped short of confirming the release of an unredacted report.

The Treasury committee, which has remained silent on the issue, may face increasing pressure to intervene and ensure that the full details of the report are made public. With the review ongoing, questions of accountability and transparency hang over Lloyds, as MPs and campaigners alike demand answers for the scandal’s many victims.