FSA to release HBOS report; B&B findings to stay secret

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) will make public its report into the collapse of HBOS, including any details of its own regulatory failings, but will not do the same for its investigation into Bradford & Bingley (B&B).

FSA chairman wrote to head of the Treasury Select Committee Andrew Tyrie earlier this month saying there is a public interest in knowing what happened at HBOS, once the regulator's has finished its investigation.

Turner said the public report will provide an account of the developments over the years preceding the crisis which put HBOS in an unsustainable position in autumn 2008.

"Producing such a public information report will be appropriate whatever the final result of the enforcement investigation," the letter said.

Taxpayers own 43% of the super bank created when Lloyds TSB made its ill-fated rescue takeover of HBOS.

Turner promised Tyrie the FSA's own role would not escape scrutiny, and the report will also identify "any deficiencies in the FSA's regulation and supervision of it".

"As with RBS, there should be a role for external reviewers, to help provide assurance that the FSA is being open about any failings of its own," he said.

However reports will not be published on other bank failures, he said, which would exclude B&B from public scrutiny.