City regulators clear HBOS ex-bosses of misconduct over bank’s near-collapse

A sign outside HBOS’s Old Broad Street offices in the City of London in 2008. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

City regulators have cleared former bosses of HBOS of misconduct in the lead-up to its near-collapse in 2008, despite previously having blamed the bank’s board for its failure.

The Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Friday that they had concluded “rigorous and forensic investigations” into unnamed former managers, after gathering more than 2m documents, interviewing former bank managers, and undertaking “substantial analysis” of the bosses’ roles and responsibilities at what was then the country’s biggest mortgage lender and savings institution.