Lloyds TSB attacked over credit card gambling
August 25, 2009
High Street bank, Lloyds TSB, has been attacked by debt charities and politicians over an issue relating to gambling on credit cards. The bank has been accused of encouraging its customers to gamble on their credit cards, thus encouraging both higher levels of debt and gambling addiction amongst its customers. The bank informed its customers by letter that they could use 50 percent of their credit as cash and use it on transactions ’such as gambling’.
The bank has already taken billions of pounds in taxpayer’s money as part of a bailout package, and the outrage that this letter has caused has resulted in pressure for some senior officials at the banking giant to resign. Officials have called for the financial services secretary, Lord Myners, to step in and handle the situation.
Philip Hammond, Tory shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: ‘It beggars belief that a bank so heavily reliant on public funds is promoting itself as a provider of credit for gambling habits. Taxpayers who are on the hook for a bail-out worth billions of pounds will be horrified. This is grossly irresponsible behaviour and Lord Myners needs to put a stop to it at once.’
Vince Cable, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, added: ‘The senior management who signed this off need to be fired. It’s quite extraordinary that a publicly owned company is effectively encouraging borrowers to gamble on their credit cards. It is exactly the type of stupid, irresponsible behaviour that has to be stopped. What makes this even more breathtaking is High Street banks such as Lloyds TSB are refusing to lend money to well-run businesses and borrowers with good credit histories.’
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