Lloyds Bank is under renewed scrutiny after former clients and whistleblowers accused it of failing small businesses in the years following the 2008 financial crash, despite receiving a £20 billion taxpayer bailout designed to keep credit flowing to SMEs.
A joint investigation by the BBC and Panorama has heard allegations that Lloyds deliberately scaled back lending and wrongly categorised viable businesses as “distressed” to recoup funds more aggressively, potentially hastening their collapse.
Several business owners told the programme that their companies folded after being placed into the bank’s Business Support Unit (BSU) – a division that was ostensibly created to help firms in difficulty. Instead, they claim the BSU offered little genuine support and accelerated the closure of salvageable operations.
James Ducker, a former Lloyds employee who sold financial products to businesses in 2009, said the bank’s internal strategy after the crash became clear: “The approach to lending became: do not lend. Beyond that, get as much money back that we’ve lent as possible.”
He described customers referred to the BSU as “easy pickings” for a bank looking to reduce its exposure.
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