BBC - Panorama - Tax inquiry into Lloyds off-shore .
More on tonight's Panorama.
Other publicly funded banks are also continuing to do business off-shore in traditional tax havens.
Among them is Northern Rock - which was bailed out by the taxpayer with £27bn at the start of the banking crisis in 2008.
It has an offshore subsidiary in Guernsey and has seen deposits almost double to £2bn since the bank was nationalised.
A banker from Northern Rock in Guernsey told Panorama's undercover customer that he could avoid the EU tax rules by opening an account in the name of a non-trading company. The Northern Rock banker said the customer should inform the Inland Revenue.
But the bank itself keeps the details secret from the taxman.
This one is staggering: Northern Rock will not open an account in Guernsey for a trading company, only for a shell company.
They offered this as a way round the European Union Savings Tax Directive.
They must know this allows evasion. The endorsement of a shell indicates to me that they know that.
I think this is staggering misconduct. Not evasion or fraud on their part, but staggering misconduct.
And there is one answer: Northern Rock Guernsey must be closed.
Note: as an adviser to the programme I have read the transcript of the conversation referred to in the BBC article.
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The banks make huge profits offshore, that is why they are there. It is in the interest of the british taxpayer for this to continue for us to get our money back.
If Gordon had let the banks sink a year ago we wouldn’t be in this mess. The deposit protection scheme exists for this purpose but wasn’t used.
Nathan
It is not in our interests. Look at the big picture.
OK so the banks are making a bit more money so that some of it may end up in treasury, what’s left after the bonuses. However, this is enabling substantial underpayment of tax elsewhere, a shortfall which those of us who actually pay tax in the UK have to make up. I suspect the taxpayer loses more than he gains.