Blog: Mel's Muse - How We Little People Can Change Big Bank Pay-outs - Open Letter to Lloyds TSB

Posted: Friday, 19th September 2008

Mr Eric Daniels,
Lloyds TSB Chief

Dear Mr Daniels,

PLEASE CLOSE MY LLOYDS TSB ACCOUNT WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT

I see, from my Daily Telegraph today (and trust that this is accurate) that subsequent to your takeover of the failed bank HBOS, you are planning to give Mr Andy Hornby, the failed CEO of HBOS a £2 million stake in Lloyds TSB. I had no objection to the former before the event, but I write now to tell you that I strenuously object to the latter.

May I remind you, Mr Daniels, that I have banked with you for the past twenty-six years. During that time I have maintained a healthy balance in my account, with the exception of one occasion when I think I slipped £20 in the red (through an oversight) and duly received a charge from you for an additional £20. I’m not precisely sure of the figures, but I think that’s the gist of it. In addition, I have saved regularly in one of your online savings account and, despite the rate of interest being considerably lower than other investments I might have made, that sum continues – for the moment – to accumulate in that account.

ONE OF THE 'LITTLE PEOPLE'

I suppose I am what you might term one of the ‘little people’. My salary – hard earned – is not huge, nor my savings large. The pension I hoped for has been eroded by Prime Minister Brown’s raid, and I am repeatedly warned that, should I have the misfortune to fall ill with cancer at some point in the future, I shall almost certainly be denied NHS help if the drugs required to keep me alive do not adhere to NICE policy. This, despite the fact that I keep myself fit and healthy, don’t smoke, drink only little and rarely, and ensure that I walk every day.

It appears, that I can have no influence whatever over the pension I have paid for, or the health service to which I have contributed for years. But I do – for the moment – have access to my bank account, and some influence, therefore, in the way that it will be used. If I were to fail in my job – and fail spectacularly as Mr Hornby has done – much as I might wish for a £2 million pound hand-out, the fact is that I would undoubtedly be given the push. Mean-spirited though I might appear, I have no wish to contribute to something I consider so grossly unfair as to grant Mr Hornby an advantage I, myself, would be denied.

MY MONEY IS MY MONEY

And so it is with regret that I have to tell you, Mr Daniels, that if you plan to use my money – I repeat MY money – to line the pockets of Mr Hornby, I shall have no recourse but to close my account. Will you please, therefore, take this as notice. If you proceed with Mr Hornby’s ‘multi-million pound stake in the new bank’ – I quote from The Daily Telegraph – I shall remove my money, with immediate effect, and CLOSE MY ACCOUNT WITH YOU.

Yours truly, Mel Menzies

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