Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

The former Chief Executive of the Co-operative Bank has pinned the blame for its current crisis on former colleagues for their "disastrous" decision to bid for more than 600 Lloyds Banking Group branches.Neville Richardson told the Treasury Committee he warned the Co-op Group's bosses that they would overload the bank by adding the Lloyds bid, known as Project Verde, to existing large projects. "Throughout 2011 I was talking about management stretch and I pointed out there would be disastrous consequences" if all the projects went ahead, Richardson told MPs on the committee. The group board and then-Chief Executive Peter Marks ignored him and he left the bank, he said.A spokeswoman for the Co-op declined to comment.Project Verde collapsed in April 2013 shortly before Co-op Bank revealed it needed £1.5bn of extra capital to meet regulatory demands. It is raising the money partly by requiring bondholders to take equity so that the mutually owned company will have shares traded on the Stock Exchange for the first time.Richardson headed Britannia when the building society merged with Co-op Bank in 2009. He then ran the merged bank before quitting in July 2011 with a payment of £4.6m. He said the idea of Project Verde arose in early 2011 but that he opposed it because the bank was already burdened by integrating Britannia, the fall-out from the financial crisis and other projects.Richardson said he was already unhappy about Project Unity, a cost-cutting plan to move responsibility for many bank functions to the Co-op Group, where there was little knowledge of banking."I was attempting to explain to people that this was going to be disastrous if all these projects went ahead at the same time."He claimed the fall-out from overloading the bank was management distraction, the departure of many senior bankers and poor control over loan management.Richardson also rejected Co-op Bank management's claim that Britannia caused most of the bank's recent losses. He claimed most of the blame lay with the Co-op.Britannia loans only account for about a third of Co-op Bank's £1.6bn of impairment provisions and other major charges in the last 18 months, Richardson said. Given that Britannia's balance sheet was much bigger than Co-op's, the former building society's loans have proved more prudent, he added.Richardson said his departure terms included a gagging clause so that, speaking under Parliamentary privilege, his committee evidence was the first time he had been able to tell his story.