LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) - Britain's parliamentarytreasury committee has asked finance minister George Osborne ifhe or colleagues put undue pressure on Co-operative Group or Lloyds Banking Group over the sale of morethan 600 Lloyds branches.
The committee, chaired by Andrew Tyrie, is looking at howLloyds divested 632 branches in a project known as Verde,required by the European Union regulators after Lloyds' rescueby taxpayers during the financial crisis.
"A variety of views have been presented in evidence to thecommittee regarding the alleged extent of political involvementin this divestment process," Tyrie wrote to Osborne in a letterdated March 26 and made public on Thursday.
"Did Treasury Ministers or any Treasury officials at anytime bring undue pressure to bear on the Co-operative Bank orGroup, or Lloyds Banking Group, in respect of the sale of theVerde branches?"
Paul Flowers, the former chairman of Co-op Bank, whichnearly collapsed last year, said this week that Osborne hadpressured the lender to buy the branches from partiallystate-owned Lloyds.
Tyrie said the committee will explore this issue when itquizzes Osborne on the Budget on April 3.
(Reporting by Huw Jones, editing by Steve Slater)
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