HBOS chief sold two-thirds of shares before bank collapsed

The former chief executive of HBOS sold off two-thirds of his personal stake in the bank's shares before the lender collapsed.

According to HBOS' 2005 annual report, Sir James Crosby had a "beneficial interest" in 284,758 HBOS shares, but a further 218,000 in long-term awards vested in 2006 plus 50,000 more under a short-term scheme brought the total to more than 550,000, the Independent reports. He sold two-thirds of this holding in the two years before the bank failed. On his last day at work in the middle of 2006, the share price stood at 946.72p. Six months after his departure, the shares had increased in value to more than £11 each. Yesterday shares in Lloyds, which took over HBOS in 2009, stood at 46...