Thaindian News

London, Sep 11 (IANS) A senior banker at Lloyds TSB in Britain has quit after claims that millions of pounds were channelled to companies owned by his Indian friends, a media report said Saturday.

Andrew Taylor, Lloyds head of off-shore operations in the south Indian city of Bangalore, resigned citing “ill health” as auditors were sent in to probe the accounts of a firm controlled by his two colleagues, Vijay Bhaskar and Raj Kumar, the Daily Mail reported.

The British executive, jointly responsible for more than 2,000 Lloyds employees in India, allegedly installed the two employees into well-paid posts in which they were “effectively writing cheques to themselves”.

Embarrassingly for the bank — which is 43 percent owned by the taxpayer — the alleged multi-million pound racket was going on while Lloyds was sacking thousands of British workers to cut costs.

Taylor, 46, is alleged to have appointed Bhaskar and Kumar to run the facilities department, responsible for awarding contracts to Indian companies, above more experienced British colleagues.

The two men are alleged to have started paying tens of thousands of pounds to a Bangalore firm called Professional Touch, which supplied rented apartments for Lloyds executives, plus driving and cleaning services.

But unknown to the bank, this company was owned by 29-year-old Bhaskar. All the payments were said to have been sanctioned by Taylor, who was described as being close friends with the men.

A source at the bank’s offices on the Bagmane Tech Park in Bangalore said: “Bhaskar made no secret of the fact that he used to be a street boy. He started off as a driver for Lloyds, then caught Taylor’s eye. MacRaeand was moved in to become the facilities manager alongside Kumar.

“They were given more power than better qualified staff, but that wasn’t enough. Someone blew the whistle over Bhaskar and Professional Touch, where he was basically writing out cheques to himself.”

Professional Touch won the contract to work with Lloyds unopposed, it is understood.

The bank has confirmed that it is investigating allegations of professional misconduct in Bangalore.

Lloyds has come under fire for replacing British staff with cheaper Indian labour in the wake of its bail-out by the taxpayer. The bulk of the Indian workers, who earn significantly less than their British counterparts, help run the bank’s computer systems and payment processing arm.

Asked about the allegations, Taylor confirmed that he had left Lloyds TSB last month due to ill health but declined to comment further.

A spokesman for the bank said: “We can confirm that we have been investigating allegations of professional misconduct within a small and non-customer facing team based in Bangalore.”