From The BBC:
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Lloyds chairman: HBOS bad loans were no surprise
The pace of the decline at HBOS surprised Lloyds, Sir Victor Blank, the banking group’s chairman told the BBC.The government backed a Lloyds takeover of HBOS last September, bypassing normal competition rules to avoid the collapse of the Halifax owner. Sir Victor, who will step down by June 2010, said the group had expected there would be HBOS losses, but they came in at “the worst end of expectations”. “What surprised us was the speed at which these losses came in,” he said. The Lloyds Banking Group, which is 43% owned by the Treasury, revealed in February this year that HBOS, which it absorbed in January, had made a pre-tax loss of £10.8bn in 2008. Meanwhile, 2008 profits at Lloyds TSB – as it was called – also fell, by 80% to £807m. The two banks together are expected to be in loss this year. Sir Victor, who has faced criticism for the decision to buy HBOS, sa…
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