Lloyds charity scoops £3.5m bank payout

A CHARITY has secured a £3.5 million payout from Lloyds Banking Group to carry out its good work after taking the bank to court.

Three appeal judges ruled the Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland should receive the cash under a long-standing agreement entitling it to a percentage of pre-tax profits following Lloyds’ acquisition of Halifax Bank of Scotland.

The decision by Scotland’s most senior judge the Lord President, Lord Hamilton, sitting with Lord Carloway and Lord Kingarth, overturned a previous ruling by Lord Glennie, who found against the charity earlier this year on the grounds that the expression of “group profit before taxation” used in the agreement was ambiguous.

The foundation was one of four charities set up in 1986 at the time of the flotation of the TSB Group. Its chief executive, Mary Craig, said the ruling was “extremely welcome”.