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LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group has
offered additional payments of 35,000 pounds each to 191 victims
of one of Britain's biggest banking scandals, after a review of
its handling of a compensation scheme found "serious
shortcomings".
Britain's biggest mortgage lender has struggled to contain
the fallout from a fraud at Halifax Bank of Scotland's branch in
Reading, which led to six people being jailed in 2017.
The scam involved small business customers being targeted
and referred to a consultancy in return for bribes including
designer watches, sex with prostitutes and foreign holidays.
A review by a retired judge into the bank's compensation
scheme, which totalled 102 million pounds ($133 million), found
it showed an 'unacceptable denial of responsibility' for
victims' suffering and likely paid some too little.
Lloyds said it would re-assess victims' claims and this week
offered the special payments due to the additional delay, a
Lloyds spokesman said.
A spokesman for campaign group the SME Alliance confirmed
the offer, which totals 6.685 million pounds.
Antonio Horta-Osorio, the chief executive of Lloyds, has
also met with some victims.
"A common concern expressed by customers, as well other
stakeholders, during recent meetings has been that a re-review
will take time and this creates further delays and distress for
them. We have listened to these concerns and are very sorry for
this," the Lloyds spokesman said.
The special payments offer was earlier reported by the
Financial Times.
($1 = 0.7674 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain Withers;
Editing by Alexander Smith)
