If the branch network and retail deposit business of Bradford & Bingley was transferred to Abbey (now Santander) for a financial consideration, why wasn this distributed among shareholders?
The sale of the deposit business and branch network to Abbey was transacted by HMT as part of the order that transferred the business into public ownership. My role as Independent Valuer has been to establish the amount, if anything, that HM Treasury should pay to the bank’s former shareholders to compensate them. In doing so I am directed by statute that I should not assume that B&B was able to benefit from financial support from HMT. I have determined that the transfer of the deposit book to Santander could not have been achieved without funding from HMT and, therefore to recognise a value uplift in this respect would not be in accordance with my Statutory Assumptions.
