LSB directors step down
THE board of the only UK bank to collapse during the credit crunch have all resigned their positions.
The Manchester-based London Scottish Bank went into administration in December 11 months after the bank admitted it did not have enough capital to satisfy the Financial Services Authority.
It had debts of £300m with some £256m belonging to savers with average deposits of £27,000. Their losses have been covered by the government’s compensation scheme.
According to documents filed with Companies House all seven members of the bank’s board have now resigned their positions.
Finance director Patrick McDonnell and company secretary Frank Dyson resigned last month. The others, including chief executive Robin Ashton and chairman Peter Cordrey, resigned on the same day in April.
The bank’s other directors were: Steve Burnett, chief executive of Liverpool’s Royal Liver Assurance; Robert Mee, former deputy chief executive at HBOS Retail and a former non-exec at the Cheshire Building Society; and Alan Benzie, former chairman of KPMG in the North who was also a non-exec at collapsed regional builder David McLean. He also sits on the board of Wigan-based retailer JJB Sports.
A spokesman for LSB’s administrator, Ernst & Young, said the resignations were not unusual and would not affect the process of administration.
London Scottish Bank started out in the early 20th century as a Wigan-based money lending business providing short-term loans to mill workers. It later relocated to Manchester and floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1987.
