£210m windfall for bank staff

Around 50,000 bank and mortgage sales staff at Halifax Bank of Scotland were celebrating news of a £210m (€313m) shares windfall today.

Staff at the UK’s fifth largest bank stand to benefit from two staff share schemes following a 56.5% jump in HBOS shares over the last three years.

Both schemes, which are set to mature in the next few weeks, have incurred huge gains for staff, with a free share scheme offered to employees in 2004 set to pay out an average of £2,400 (€3,600) to members.

Meanwhile, £90m (€134m) is due to be released to staff who opted to participate in a bonus related scheme.

The news comes as HBOS prepares to unveil its full-year results on Wednesday, with analysts predicting a £5.43bn (€8bn) profits haul for the group, up 13% from last year.

HBOS will be the third of the “Big Five” banking groups to report, following Barclays and Lloyds TSB last week.

The banks have come under major criticism as profits soar to record levels amid high customer charges within the industry.

Barclays incurred the wrath of consumers when it posted a leap in profits to more than £7bn (€10bn) last week. The profits came despite escalating problems with bad debts incurred at its Barclaycard division.