First Minister to lobby managers

Published on Tuesday 23 September 2008 22:10

ALEX Salmond is to make a personal pitch to senior managers at Lloyds TSB in the next few weeks in an attempt to persuade them to retain as much of HBOS as possible in Scotland.

The First Minister acknowledged yesterday that Lloyds TSB had secured the "deal of the century" in taking over HBOS, but he still believed there was hope of retaining much of HBOS in Scotland.

Mr Salmond said he was prepared to travel anywhere to meet Sir Victor Blank, the Lloyds TSB chairman, and his board and he would give them a presentation on the benefits of staying in Scotland.

The decision by the First Minister to make a presentation to Lloyds TSB was agreed at his meeting yesterday with Archie Kane, a Lloyds TSB board member and the chief executive of Scottish Widows.

Mr Salmond will make his pitch in the next three weeks, aware that, if he leaves it any longer, Lloyds TSB's plans for HBOS will be at too advanced state to alter.

Lloyds TSB will also make a presentation to the Scottish Council for Development and Industry on its plans.

Mr Salmond said after his meeting that Lloyds TSB had agreed to take a submission from the Scottish Government presenting the arguments for Scotland as a location for "key head office decision-making functions".

Mr Kane had also assured him Lloyds bosses were alive to the special role of the Bank of Scotland, a body "hard-wired to the social fabric of Scotland", as well as its economic role. And Mr Kane, as chief executive of Scottish Widows, had shown how it was possible to run a successful head office in Scotland as part of a wider financial group, said the First Minister.