Why is HBOS so important?
If there is one company which has never been out of the headlines for some months now it is HBOS which is the combined Halifax and Bank of Scotland. But why is HBOS so important and why are so many parties seemingly interested in its future?
While nobody really knows the motivation behind the various parties interested in HBOS we have a bank which has literary fallen to its knees, is available at a knockdown price and employs over 20,000 people in Scotland. These facts alone have brought in Lloyds TSB, the UK government and the Scottish government all of whom have a different angle and a different motive.
In all of the midst of the economic slowdown, the collapse of HBOS and the ongoing saga, many people have forgotten the HBOS was, and continues to be, one of the leading financial institutions in the UK. It has a customer base of millions, is renowned for its property market surveys and has a reach that few other banking institutions could dream of. Even before the collapse of the financial sector there had been rumours of interest in HBOS from as far afield as the United States of America.
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