The allegations involve “kick-backs” being paid to bank managers in exchange for lucrative administration contracts given to a small group of external consultants.
Two former senior managers in the Reading and London offices of HBOS were charged by police on Tuesday night with conspiracy to corrupt, following a two-year investigation codenamed ‘Operation Hornet’, according to a report in the Telegraph.
The men were said to be given numerous high-value gifts by a financial consultancy in exchange for appointing the firm to administer business loans worth £35m which were granted to companies in financial difficulty, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
As well as the two bankers, a number of consultants were charged along with their wives as part of the investigation.
In total eight people were charged and released on bail and have been ordered to attend a hearing at Reading Magistrates Court later this month.
The cases stretch back over seven years, meaning they would have taken place in the run-up to the bank’s collapse in 2008.
HBOS was eventually rescued by Lloyds TSB after making a request for emergency funds worth billions of pounds to keep it afloat.
