The losses suffered by HBOS as a result of the Bank of Scotland Reading fraud were, apparently, £925 million, not the circa £500 earlier reported. This comes from well-placed sources.
Yet it seems that the Financial Services Authority’s “investigation” into the scandal, requested by eight MPs and a Treasury minister in June, is destined to be another whitewash. Inside sources at the FSA recently let slip that the investigation has not yet got underway, and is being “outsourced” to an independent third party — thought to be Ernst & Young, which is joke given that the the ‘big four’ accountancy firm is heavily conflicted.
E&Y last year secured a major consultancy contract from Lloyds Banking Group, to oversee the integration of Lloyds and HBOS’s IT sytems, which one might have assumed meant it is likely to produce another lily-livered whitewash. Is this the seriousness with which financial crime is treated by the authorities in this country?
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