Bank gave secret 62bn loan to HBOS and RBS
THE Bank of England has revealed for the first time that it lent Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and HBOS £61.6bn in a bid to save the financial system from collapse.
Governor Mervyn King yesterday admitted a secret deal had been done last November as the lenders struggled for survival.
But the undercover nature of the loans led to Lloyds TSB shareholders losing millions of pounds after the bank went on to buy HBOS, according to critics.
Conservative MP Michael Fallon said: “We certainly should have been told after that, and certainly Lloyds shareholders, who after that voted to merge with HBOS were kept in the dark about the scale of these losses.”
King said the loans had been repaid in full by January this year.