February 27th, 2010 (updated June 22nd, 2012) HBOS’s entrance on The Mound; Image: The We Lessons must be learnt from the short and calamitous history of HBOS, the bank which effectively went bust in September 2008, writes Ian Fraser (Note: This article was first posted under the headline “HBOS: When did the rot set in? [...]
Editorial note: June 22nd, 2012 A revised and updated version of this blog is now available via the following link:- The Worst Bank in the World? HBOS’s Calamitous Seven Year Life
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: July 10th, 2011 THE police force investigating an alleged £1 billion fraud at the former Reading operation of HBOS has no plans to probe the possible role of the bank’s former senior executives and board directors in the scandal. Thames Valley Police, working in conjunction with the Serious Organised [...]
By: Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: October 3rd, 2010 A former HBOS banker who has been linked to an alleged money-laundering scandal was arrested and bailed last week by the economic crime unit of Thames Valley Police. In the first arrest of a financier on suspicion of criminal behaviour from the UK’s state-rescued banking [...]
Blog post revised and retitled October 3rd, 2010 A fourth person has been arrested in relation to Thames Valley Police’s investigation into “corruption and large-scale fraud in connection with HBOS”. [Note: comments on this post have now been disabled and earlier comments from witnesses have been removed as a result of the police investigation "Operation [...]
September 20th, 2010 Lloyds Banking Group must live in a parallel universe. The press release announcing that chief executive Eric Daniels has finally taken the hint and will retire within a year, gives the impression the American’s seven years at the helm have been an unqualified success. In the release, the bank’s chairman Sir Win [...]
September 11th, 2010 David Mills, the founder of Core Enterprise Management and Quayside Corporate Services, is a past master of prepackaged administrations and corporate phoenixings. It therefore came as no surprise when I learnt today that a company where Mills was chairman, London-based interdealer broker Mint Partners, went into administration on August 16. Nor that [...]
August 28th, 2010 (edited January 6th, 2013) [Editorial Note: This article was written in June 2010 but has not previously been published in its entirety. An edited version was published in The Sunday Times on June 27th, 2010] Directors of an aviation business that crash landed owing HBOS £113 million in September 2007 were allowed to [...]
August 27th, 2010 The founder and owner of Quayside Corporate Services — a self-styled turnaround consultancy that was pivotal to the Bank of Scotland Reading scandal – has lately been stepping down from a surprising number of boards. In June David Mills, 53, quit the board of Cardiff-based revolving credit company Clode Group Holdings, as well [...]
[Editorial Note: This article was written in November 2008 but has never been published before in its entirety. An edited version was published in two parts (part one and part two) by the Glasgow-based Sunday Herald on November 30th, 2008] [with minor revisions and links addedOctober 2nd, 2010.] Lloyds TSB recently mailed a circular [...]