Lloyds wipes the slate clean before the new chief takes over

Shareholders in the old Lloyds TSB may have assumed that, finally, they had seen the last horrors of the HBOS takeover. But, no, the deal keeps on taking value away from them. This time it's a £500m bill for the confusion caused by some sloppily worded mortgage contracts written by Halifax . In fairness to Eric Daniels, chief executive of the enlarged Lloyds Banking Group, even a full dose of due diligence on HBOS in the autumn of 2008 may not have revealed the scale of Halifax's slip-up. Once the facts were clear, though, Lloyds had two choices: either try to butch things out and risk a serious row with the Financial Services Authority, or make a "goodwill" gesture to 300,000 customers and try to score some brownie points. It chose the latter, which may be the sensible course for a bank 42%-owned by the state. It is also, one can guess, what Daniels' successor, António Horta-Osório, would prefer. He takes the helm next week and incoming bosses always prefer a clean(ish) slate.