Lloyds shareholders file suit against lender over HBOS losses

7th Aug 2014 10:48

Lloyds shareholders filed a lawsuit against the bank on Wednesday, claiming they lost £12bn during the rescue of HBOS in 2008. According to The Guardian, 7,500 investors from the Lloyds Action Now group have signed a High Court suit against the bank.The group argued that the true financial health of HBOS was deliberately concealed from investors when Lloyds took over the troubled bank. The enlarged bank had to be later bailed out with £20bn of taxpayer money.Adrian Lithgow, one of the founders of Lloyds Action Now, said: "After five years of struggling against immense odds we have now got our case into court. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary savers had their lives wrecked by bankers and the Labour government when they were gulled into saving them from the financial crisis - a crisis of the government's and the bankers' own making."A spokesperson from Lloyds said: "The group's position remains that we do not consider there to be any legal basis to these claims and we will robustly contest this legal action."Royal Bank of Scotland shareholders are also claiming £4bn compensation as they believe they were misled during a cash call before the bank's bailout by the government.Lloyd's shares have dropped considerably since Wednesday.On Thursday, shares were down 0.32% to 72p at 10:00.JF