S's big selling-point remains the cost-cutting reputation of its chief executive, Peter Burt.

ECONOMIST: British banking

Peter Burt, project director of NIS, said he was concerned such large sums of money were being spent on nuclear weapons.

BBC: ?750m spend on AWE enriched uranium facility revealed

Sir Peter Burt, the Bank of Scotland boss who engineered its merger with the Halifax Building Society in 2001, and Sir George Mathewson, a former chief executive and chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland, are now campaigning to persuade shareholders to oust HBOS's current top management and install them instead.

ECONOMIST: Recession is cutting into the nationalists�� popularity