Fraud Helps Stimulate the Economy

Lloyds banking group, which includes the Halifax and the bank of Scotland, has increased its provisions for its previous shameful activities. The provision for selling people payment protection insurance, which has been more akin to an old style confidence trick that it has to an activity that you would expect from a supposedly reputable bank, has been increased by £1.8 billion to almost £10 billion and the provisions for compensating businesses for selling them interest-rate hedging products has been increased by a mere £130 million. The latter seems suspiciously low figure.

PPI Profits and Proceeds of Crime

I see that Lloyds Bank has a loss of more than £3.5 billion last year, which is either a great deal of money or not very much, depending on your point of view. £3.5 billion would have provided theUKwith the BBC free for a year, saving each household £145 in licence fee. That amount lost by the bank is not really lost at all. Let me explain.