City minister Lord Myners has defended the emergency loans totalling £61.6bn that were handed to the Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS at the height of the financial crisis last year, as the political row over the secrecy surrounding them intensified.
Myners said this morning that it was "absolutely vital" for the British economy that the Bank of England carried out the rescue operation covertly, even though taxpayers and shareholders in other banks were left in the dark for more than 12 months, The Guardian reports. "It's worth remembering that back in October we really were on the edge of a precipice, where the banking sector was very close to complete collapse," Myners told the BBC's Today Programme. Myners also indicated that such secrecy will be maintained again when required. Full story...
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