Credit Crash Britain - HBOS: Breaking the Bank

The first in a special five-part series from the Money Programme examining different aspects of the credit crunch. Investigating the extraordinary fall of HBOS, we examine the subsequent rescue attempts to explain the seismic changes that swept through the UK's banking industry - culminating in the Government's 50 billion pound rescue plan. We reveal how the last minute deal with Lloyds TSB was brokered with Government assistance against a backdrop of global financial turmoil, and show how the continuing market unease led to the Government's decision to part-nationalise the banking industry. The programme, presented by Paul Mason, asks if HBOS contributed to its own downfall with its aggressive lending policy designed to seize market share. And we investigate how a bank with hundreds of billions of pounds in assets, and around one in five UK mortgages on its books, found itself fighting for survival. We also examine the role shorting played in its demise and ask if regulators could have stepped in earlier to protect the bank. And if the merger goes ahead, who will be the winners and losers after the creation of this UK mega-bank?