HBOS, we were told, could not be allowed to fail because it held a fifth of the country’s mortgages. The answer, it seems, is to waive the rules on corporate takeovers to create a bank holding….erm…. a third of the country’s savings.
Presumably, the failure of this new group would be even more unthinkable. The bankers have the government over a barrel.
Remind me, wasn’t the Competition Commission set up to prevent companies becoming too powerful?
That was my first thought when I heard about it. A failure of banking establishment of that size doesn’t bear thinking about!
Talking to a friend the other day who used to work for HBOS.
When he first started he had a meeting with personnel (not his line manager!) once a year about training, career prospects, how was he doing etc etc
By the time he left, he just got an email from his line manager berating him for not meeting targets.
I wonder if the redundancies will include the annoying people they get to do silly TV adverts?