HBOS: Lloyds TSB chairman Victor Blank talks about the deal

Published on Friday 19 September 2008 22:16

THE LOGIC "It's been an ambition of our boards to combine the two businesses if ever there was an opportunity to do so.

"When I was chairman of GUS, I brought in Andy Hornby as a non-executive director. He called me to suggest we have breakfast and talk about a merger. We are both middle-sized banks and however well we perform it would be difficult to develop our business. But we can go forward together as a British bank onto the world stage."

THE BoS NAME

"All this has happened in a great rush so we have not ironed out all the details. But it is inconceivable that the Bank of Scotland name will not be maintained."

BUSINESS CUSTOMERS

"We are in business to do business. For corporate customers we want to shorten lines of communication, not lengthen them. We admire Bank of Scotland's business franchise. We would only want to grow that."

MORTGAGE SHARE

"Our share of the mortgage market will increase. But there are very heavy competitors – Santander (owner of Abbey], Nationwide and RBS. We don't think it will give us extra market power.

"We are looking to build our business. Why would we do anything that would put that growth in danger? If BoS customers have good relations with their managers, there is no reason to move."

THE TIMETABLE

"The deal is a special scheme of arrangement and it will require the approval of both sets of shareholders. I expect that in about six to eight weeks."