Britannia Radio

The government clearly has no intention whatsoever in bringing the
principles of justice and fairness to bear on the wilful destr
iuction of fine institutions.

Crosby admits no wrong, shows no shame and profits mightily from the
misery he has caused to others. He is - or was until it seemed
politically unwise - of Gordon Brown and it was Gordon Brown who
twisted the arms of Lloyds-TSB to force through a disastrous merger
which looks likely to ruin the otherwise sound Lloyds too.

This scandalous pension is provided out of misappropriated funds and
that, in other contexts, is deemed a crime.

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EVENING STANDARD 17.2.09
Failed HBOS chief will take pension of £572,000 a year
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor

THE senior banker blamed for the crisis at HBOS came under fresh
attack today as it emerged that he is in line for a "scandalous"
pension of more than half a million pounds a year.

Sir James Crosby, who was forced to quit as a City regulator last
week, is due to get an annual income of £572,000 after building up a
pension pot of £10.4 million. The Liberal Democrats today urged Sir
James to forgo the payout, given the crisis the bank now faces.

The proposed pay-out will cause further embarrassment to the newly
created Lloyds Banking Group, which took over HBOS this year.

Taxpayers currently own 43 per cent of Lloyds and HBOS and Chancellor
Alistair Darling is expected by many to further nationalise the bank
amid plunging share prices. The bumper pension, the details of which
are buried in HBOS's annual report published last week, heaps further
pressure on to Sir James.

He resigned as deputy chairman of the Financial Services Authority
after claims that he sacked a whistleblower who warned the bank that
it was expanding too fast.

Sir James was chief executive of the merged Halifax and Bank of
Scotland, overseeing its much-criticised reliance on wholesale credit
markets. He left the firm in 2006 and successor Andy Hornby was in
charge as the bank came close to collapse last year when worldwide
credit dried up.

As the Standard revealed Sir James's pension deal today, Lib-Dem
Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said it was proof of the "outrageous"
payments overseen by HBOS. "This just confirms the stench that is
emerging from this completely failed and badly-run bank over which he
presided for years," Mr Cable said.

"Taxpayers and HBOS shareholders have suffered so grievously at his
hands that I think he does have a moral obligation to repay some of
the scandalously overgenerous payments he has received." Mr Cable
added that a "further insult" to taxpayers was that Sir James would
have had full top-rate tax relief on his pension contributions.

Sir James joined the Halifax when it was a building society and
became chief executive in 1999, leading the merger with Bank of
Scotland in 2001 and pushing its rapid growth from then on.

When he stood down from HBOS he was earning £858,000 and collected
bonuses of £2,147,000 between 2002 and 2006. The bank's annual
reports show he will earn a pension of £572,000 a year from a pension
pot which was worth £10.4million at the end of 2006.

Sir James, who left HBOS in 2006 aged 50, insisted last week that
there was "no substance" to the allegations made by whistleblower
Paul Moore. He said he was resigning from the FSA because he did not
want to make the regulator's task more difficult.

A spokeswoman for Lloyds confirmed that Sir James's pension would be
£572.000 a year. His successor, 42-year-old Mr Hornby, is in line for
a pension of £184,000 a year from a pension pot of £2 million.