But its collapse and rescue by Lloyds actually led to greater concentration in the banking market, and was therefore anti-competitive - and the wounded Lloyds has been struggling to provide the credit needed for British economic recovery.

BBC: Why bash the HBOS three?

The worst mistakes of this crisis were arguably made in relatively simple areas of retail and commercial banking from the concentration of risk in the corporate-loan book of HBOS to Wachovia's kamikaze acquisition of Golden West, a Californian lender stuffed full of mortgage-shaped grenades.

ECONOMIST: The revolution within