HBOS rewards 100 branch managers with New York trip

STRICKEN bank HBOS is to fly 100 branch managers and their partners to New York to reward their performance during a year that has seen it plunge to the brink of collapse, it emerged today.

News of the lavish rewards scheme comes as staff across the company anxiously await news of anticipated widespread job cuts after the takeover of the company by Lloyds TSB got the final stamp of approval by shareholders.

The managers – from across the country and understood to include several from Edinburgh – are to have flights and accommodation for the four-day trip across the Atlantic in March fully paid for by HBOS, which will be partially owned by the taxpayer when it becomes part of the new Lloyds Banking Group.

HBOS has also confirmed that they will receive "a small amount of spending money" for the trip.

News of the trip has provoked outrage among staff and opponents of the takeover.

SNP MSP Alex Neil, a member of the Scottish Parliament's finance committee and among a group of politicians that have fought the Lloyds deal amid fears over jobs, said: "When you have up to 40,000 people who could lose their jobs it is a total insult to them that branch managers and their wives are allowed to go off on a jolly.

"This should be stopped now because it is an absurdity. The people who have allowed it should have a look at themselves in the mirror."

It is understood that the incentive scheme happens every year, with the March 2009 trip offered in November 2007 to encourage performance in the current year.

The branch managers who are chosen for the trip are those who have overseen the strongest growth above targets in their branches.

A spokeswoman for HBOS said: "Just like many companies we reward our exceptional performers. By definition, that is a small group of staff and sometimes that involves an incentive trip overseas.

"It is a reward for a very small amount of colleagues who have offered exceptional performance and gone the extra mile."

Banks have been facing closer scrutiny over their spending since the credit crunch took hold, especially Lloyds TSB, HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland, which are each to receive Government rescue funds.

Last month, RBS cancelled its annual Group Finance Awards after it had been criticised for splashing out on lavish incentives packages.

One member of staff at HBOS said: "It is OK for them being able to get a holiday out of the company but for the rest of us we don't even know where we're going to be in 12 months."