General view of signage at a branch of Lloyds bank, in London, Britain October 31, 2021. REUTERS/Tom Nicholson
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LONDON, Sept 6 (Reuters) – Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L)has been hit by more than 300 million pounds ($348 million) of suspected fraud linked to COVID-19 pandemic-era recovery loans for small businesses, the highest among big bank peers, according to government data.
British banks overall have classified some 1.1 billion pounds worth of the emergency lending scheme known as “bounce back” loans as fraud, the data published on Monday by Britain’s Department for Business, Energy and Industry (BEIS) showed.
Lloyds is the worst hit among big banks by net amount, and also saw a higher ratio of likely fraud with some 3.6% of its 8.5 billion pounds of bounce back loans categorised as under suspicion, according to a Reuters calculation from the data.
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That compared with 2.4% for Barclays’ 10.8 billion pounds lending under the scheme, 1.7% for NatWest’s 8.9 billion and 1.3% for HSBC’s 7.3 billion.
Lloyds declined to comment.
The other banks said the differing levels could partly reflect some lenders having more sophisticated fraud detection measures, as well as different thresholds for classifying a loan as suspect.
The levels of fraudulent loans at the lenders are not final and are subject to change. Under the scheme rules, the government is responsible for…
