Regions

Finance Minister George Osborne told lawmakers that the country’s finance ministry department did not hinder the planned sale of hundreds of Lloyds Banking Group branches. The sale of Lloyds’ banks was supposedly offered to Co-operative Bank.

However, the sale did not push through after the plan went down in April 2013. Due to the cancelled sale, Co-op Bank’s problems became clearer when a capital shortage was seen to be at GBP1.5 billion. Co-op Bank was forced to restructuring its plan under the control of US hedge funds and other bondholders, reported Reuters.

The Treasury Select Committee had been conducting an inquiry into the collapsed sale. The committee has also looked at the possibility of Lloyds being under political pressure to sell a total of 631 branches to Co-op Bank.

Lloyds was given government funded rescue during the financial crisis. As a part of the deal, European regulators ordered the bank to sell its branches after approving GBP20.5 billion bailout fund.