Jim Armitage: Lloyds must tread more carefully to avoid Reading rage

Hell hath no fury like a customer scorned. Just ask Lloyds.

Having treated victims of the Reading HBOS sex-for-bankruptcies scandal with apparent disdain for a decade, it is trying to make amends.

On Monday, heeding victims’ concerns it would hire one of the arguably conflicted Big Four accountants or Magic Circle law firms to look into compensation, Lloyds recruited a veteran reviewer of banking disputes — Professor Russel Griggs.

But a growing number of customers, whose cases were heard in the HBOS trial, say he’s wholly inappropriate.

They point to a previous independent review where they say the Prof was naive on the scandal of how banks put troubled businesses into their special measures units such as RBS’s Global Restructuring Group.

It’s in nobody’s interests to repeat the fiasco of the child sex abuse inquiry, where the thing took years to start because of objections to the proposed chairmen.

But Lloyds should have sought HBOS victims’ views on the appointment before announcing it.

They now scent a stitch up, where the reviewer rubberstamps what the bank wants to hear. Lloyds faces another noisy backlash.

Kid gloves are needed for those so badly bruised and beaten.

All that glitters …

A London banker objects to criticisms of his profession over Russian money-laundering in this week’s Laundromat scandal. Don’t blame us, he says, blame the Home Office.

Under the Labour government, the Home Office created “Golden Visas”, where foreigners pledging to invest big money here were allowed in, pretty much no questions asked. Hundreds, then thousands of the super-rich came to London, opening bank accounts here and sending their children to expensive British schools.

Though some were from the US and other relatively clean countries, 60% were multimillionaires from Russia and China — two of the most corrupt countries in the world. In 2014, the rules were tightened, the hurdles made more expensive. And guess what happened? The numbers of Russians and Chinese plummeted overnight.

From a total peak of 1172 Golden Visas granted in 2014 before the clampdown, only 192 were issued in 2015. Chinese and Russian investor visas fell to just 35 and 34 respectively.

Figures for 2016 look similar, with only 215 visas issued.

From a money-laundering perspective, that has to be good. But it makes you wonder – what checks has the Government been doing on the backgrounds of the 3000 millionaires and billionaires let in before the clampdown?