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LONDON, April 10 (Reuters) - British finance minister GeorgeOsborne was on Thursday pressed for more details about thegovernment's involvement in a collapsed deal to sell hundreds ofLloyds Banking Group branches to the Co-operative Bank.
Lawmakers conducting an inquiry into the planned sale, whichfell through in April last year, are trying to establish whetherundue political pressure was applied to Lloyds or regulators tosell 631 high-street branches to the Co-op.
The abandonment of the deal presaged the near collapse ofthe Co-op under massive debt.
Andrew Tyrie, the head of the committee looking into thesale, wrote to Osborne for the second time in two weeks askingfor details of the role ministers played in the deal. He saidOsborne's first response, which acknowledged contact betweenministers and those involved in the deal, had been insufficient.
"Your letter of April 3 provided some general information onthese contacts, but lacked the details requested on timing ofcontacts, the individuals involved and the content ofdiscussion," Tyrie said in a letter dated April 9 that wasreleased on Thursday.
Osborne said last week that the British finance ministry didnot interfere in the process of the deal.
Paul Flowers, the former chairman of Co-op Bank, said inMarch that Osborne had pressured it to buy the branches frompartially state-owned Lloyds. Peter Levene, chair of rivalbidder NBNK, has repeatedly alleged that political interferenceresulted in Co-op Bank being named as the preferred bidder. (Reporting by William James)
