The chairman of HBOS yesterday criticised the failure of Britain's financial regulators to punish insider trading, as he asked shareholders to back the bank's £4bn rights issue despite its share price sliding below the subscription price for the fourth time, The Times reports.
Lord Stevenson of Coddenham told about 400 retail investors at HBOS's general meeting, in Edinburgh, that “for legal reasons” he could not state his true feelings about the hedge fund managers thought to have forced down HBOS's share price through short-selling on the back of false rumours. “Very nice people,” he said with a grimace. Instead, the HBOS chairman railed against Britain's inability to crack down on financial crimes such as insider trading. “I've thought for a long time that there's a strong case for believing that the UK is exceptionally bad at dealing with upmarket white-co...
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