Ex-HBOS bosses face City bans as watchdogs launch bank failure probes

Former senior managers at HBOS in the run-up to its collapse could be banned from working in the City after regulators announced they would launch long-awaited investigations.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said they would start probes into "certain" bosses at the failed bank.

It comes after a damning report last November by Andrew Green QC, which blasted former regulators for their failure to investigate a raft of executives and called for further probes into up to 10 senior managers, including ex-chief executives Andy Hornby and James Crosby, as well as past chairman Lord Stevenson.

The FCA and PRA said their investigations would "determine whether or not any prohibition proceedings should be commenced" against the former bosses.

They could face being struck off from working in the financial services industry, while the Insolvency Service also has the power to ban them from being directors of any company.

The FCA and PRA also said they would "review materials with a view to making further decisions regarding other former HBOS senior managers".

The watchdogs did not name the ex-managers who will be investigated.

But Mr Hornby, Mr Crosby and Lord Stevenson were named in Mr Green's scathing report at the end of last year, as well as a raft of other executives he said the former regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), should have investigated.

These included Mike Ellis, former finance director, Colin Matthew, ex-head of the international division, and Lindsay Mackay, former boss of the treasury division.