It's a muddle.. but is it a fiddle?

I ASKED Lothian and Borders Police to investigate the bank job after reading the Lloyds TSB and HBoS chairmen's joyous comments following a takeover unimpeded by the usual rules governing such big business deals. Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling waived the normal referral to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, and the Financial Services Agency was curiously quiet.

Lloyds TSB and HBoS are reported to have said they had wanted a merger for years, and had discussed the matter. Competition laws prevented the realisation of their dream.

Senior figures in the financial services industry were reported as saying that the rumours that caused the run on the HBoS following the collapse of Lehman Brothers were the work of people whose aim was to weaken HBoS.

In addition, no-one from either bank would explain why there had been a delay in contacting the stock market when the accepted procedure is for companies to do so as soon as takeover/merger talks have started. The idea is to prevent speculators from manipulating share values.

Lothian and Borders Police have said that the matter will be thoroughly investigated.

I think the investigating officers could be helped in their work by the cats that were let out of the bag by HBoS communications manager Shane O'Riordain in an interview conducted on Sunday by the BBC's Politics Show presenter, Glenn Campbell.

Neither of the two banks' chairmen have spoken in public since expressing their satisfaction that their previously forbidden union had been all but consummated, with the government's blessing. But suspicions have grown that this was no shotgun marriage, and that the PM and the Chancellor had been bounced, or duped, or panicked into waving it through, without the normal health checks.

But the rather hapless Mr O'Riordain went, or was sent, out to say what had to be said, and to try and make it believable. Suspicion was growing that this match made in muddle and guddle, had the whiff of a bit of fiddle.

What follows is a transcript of Mr O'Riordain's answers to Glenn Campbell's questions... judge for yourself.

GC: This was a rescue takeover, an emergency deal, wasn't it?

SO'R: No. No. We don't recognise any of these words... we took a long, hard view and decided on future prospects. We took the view . . . that this was right for reasons I have mentioned before.

GC: If the Bank of England had extended its special liquidity scheme last week, would the Board of HBoS have been interested in taking up that sort of offer as opposed to takeover?

SO'R: ...just to repeat... the decision was taken after a long, hard review of our business. It is the right decision. It isn't about one week's worth of events.

GC: It was a crisis!

SO'R: It wasn't a crisis, although the media would like to portray it that way. We took a long, hard look at our decision and took decisive action.

Also from the interview:

GC: Any chance of the group HQ being in Edinburgh?

SO'R: Lloyds TSB have said the group HQ will be in London.

GC: Will there be substantial operations in Scotland?

SO'R: Yes.

GC: Will there be management focus on jobs in Scotland?

SO'R: Yes. All the important boxes have been completed.

GC: HBoS Corporate Division is in Edinburgh, is that likely to remain as HQ of the new corporate side?

SO'R: I cannot give that information. We are in week one.

GC: Some decisions must have been taken. Your document speaks of savings of £1 billion per annum. Any indication of what that means for jobs?

SO'R: No. No management plan on the shelf, no definite number. Lloyds TSB chairman has said there have been ridiculous numbers out there of job losses... this is speculation.

GC: If £1bn is a ten per cent reduction in cost base, is that a reasonable place to start?

SO'R: There are many ways in which costs can be reduced, not just jobs...

GC: You must have indicative calculations.

SO'R: There is no masterplan.

If there isn't a "masterplan" what did HBoS mean when they talked about there being "a monster powerhouse in Edinburgh"?

If corners have been cut unfairly, maybe illegally, it's not in the public interest to allow the main players to hide behind the "global crisis", and walk away with bonuses, salaries and homes intact, while people in the Edinburgh region and beyond are in danger of losing their jobs and their homes.

This merger may be as good as it gets ...but people must not become homeless as a result.