Lloyds supremo tells of shock at HBOS losses

The boss of the bank which took over HBOS has revealed the speed at which it racked up huge losses came as a surprise.

Victor Blank, who is chairman of Lloyds Banking Group, said he expected losses at HBOS, but they were at “the worst end of expectations”.

In February Lloyds surprised the City by announcing that HBOS would rack up a £10bn (€11.5bn) deficit for last year. The bank was rescued in a government-backed deal at the height of the financial turmoil last autumn.

Blank told the BBC: “When we announced the deal in the middle of September, it did not feel like a rescue of HBOS.

“It felt like a wonderful opportunity that was available and would only have been available in adversity.”

Financial problems mounted after new government regulations required all the banks to have extra capital, he said.

“The government changed the rules and the world changed. What we found in the HBOS portfolio was, I think, the problems we anticipated being there.

“The speed with which those problems came home to roost was greater than we would have anticipated because (of) the fall in Gross Domestic Product.”

Market confidence in HBOS collapsed last autumn and the Government waived competition rules to allow the bank to be taken over by Lloyds TSB, creating a UK “super-bank”.

The taxpayer has since pumped a total of £17bn (€19.6bn) into the two banks to shore up their balance sheets.

Blank and his fellow Lloyds management have faced criticism for the tie-up.

He announced in May that he would step aside as chairman in June 2010.

He told the BBC: “It became clear that in order to rehabilitate Lloyds Banking Group as quickly as possible in the eyes of the banking community, it was probably necessary for some change to be made at the top.

“Fair or unfair... it was necessary.”