Wrong - you have fallen for the press release that the deal is worth £12.2 Billion when it is an all-share offer depending entirely on the market reaction to the wisdom of the deal & the resulting Lloyds share price - that share price fell today from 279 to 237 leaving Lloyds directors red-faced.

Robert Cookson, Bow Brickhill, UKL

You conldn't make this kind of nonsense up; The banks mis manage their finacials and reduce themselves to near bankruptcy. What happens? The Government invites them to form an anti competitive cartel to allow them to rip more charges out of the consumer. Gordon Brown the Prudent?

richard baker, bristol, UK

If it gets the "Howard" adverts off our screens then its a godd thing!

Seriously though, where is the governing from the government. They are all concentrating on their conferences not the day job.

MMC have doen an about face and its going to be a free for all.

Russ, Glasgow,

I have a friend who is a Director at HBOS.

He has told me that if his mother rings I am to tell her that he plays the piano in a brothel.

Stanley Banks, Bradley Stoke, UK

Andy Hornby should be sacked with no pay off, he was the man who totally mismanaged halifax causing this sad state of affairs, or maybe employed as toilet cleaner as he caused such a mess

R surtees, ashford, kent

Maybe to try and stabalise the banks here just a little more, Lloyds could take over Bradford and Bingley as well, this may take care of some of the current waves and prevent another 'rogue wave' in the next few weeks or months.

Richard, Bristol, UK

My daughter works for HBOS in one of the worst areas of Britain for unemployment ( despite the declarations of Brown that we don't have any) and I have no doubt that she will lose her job. HBOS was used as an example of all the 'new' jobs that Labour have created since 1997. Didn't last long did it?

judy, Liverpool, England

I would be very unhappy if I was a Lloyds TSB employee, having to worry about my job because my employer decided to rescue HBOS.

Neil, Edinburgh, UK

Gordon Brown couldn't let HBOS fail. Northern Rock was one of the triggering events to his drop in popularity, coming just after his election about-face. He needed to use this opportunity to show that he has learned from Northern Rock and won't let that happen again.

Neil, Norwich, UK

".. If you think about the company it really puts us on the global scale," Mr Daniels said.

And we've all just witnessed what happens to those 'giants'. With each and every report I read I can't help but see large band-aids being applied across the globe to ease the problem. What about a solution?

cavj, Qinhuangdao, Hebei, China

Hornby hasn't done that bad a job. The business is financially sound and it has a strong balance sheet. Admittedly, it may be over exposed to the mortgage sector and relies too much on wholesale lending, but essentially it is being forced into this position by the fall in its stock price.

Neil, London,

If only 10% of employees are made redundant then 14,200 individuals will be dismissed as redundant.
Let's hope that these two organisations handle the redundancy process with care and efficiency.
Too many businesses mis-manage the complex redundancy process to everyone's disadvantage and pain.

Peter. Redundancy Assist, London, UK

Who says HBOS would have failed? It was still a very highly rated bank by the credit rating agencies. And yes, why not another EU institution? Surely it would have created a much less serious competition law issue. This is all very fishy. I feel sorry for the pension funds that have lost so much

Jenny, Brentwood, GB

Hi, what will happen to my job. I am a russian employee working for hbos and i have five year work permit. I joined HBOS in 2005. if i lose my job can i work in britain? i will be happy if someone can provide me with information

david, notting hill, london, unie d kingdom

I do hope that the policians allow LLoyds TSB to operate independently, they will not need the head office in Scotland now. Or the majority of the branches which are duplicated across English towns & cities. If severe cuts are not made then in a year or two we will be in the same state.

STEVEN PRUSSIA, EDGWARE, ENGLAND

Hopefully this rescue will have damaged shorters hard and closed off all weak links in the UK Banking sector. If only the government banned shorting, reducing volatility and unfounded runs on share prices.

R, London,

Goldman's will be gone within the week.

James, London, UK

No news so far about the thousands of other HBOS employees that work in places such as Chester?

Jamie Maguire, Caerwys,

how could a good company have got in this mess? the board must all go with their tails between their legs and no golden farewells only standard redundancy terms

susan banham, norwich, england

Don't forget that they still have to repay ALL the overcharging and illegal penalties they charged as the High Court has ALREADY ruled against them.! That should also help put their total debt up. I would suggest that closer to 50,000 should be looking for new jobs.No generous redundancy either !

REB, Exeter, England

Is this merger a smart idea? Picking winners?! What about asking a bank from abroad to buy Halifax? This government chose a buyer for Rover and that failed. Maybe better to ask a Chinese bank to buy Halifax!

Hugo van Randwyck, London, UK

The old BOS ran a very risky ship, There is no logic is keeping the HBOS office in Scotland after all it has not proved very successfull up to now. If this merger is allowed by the EU the power should be shifted to LloydsTSB in London it would be too risky to leave it in Scotland.

A Seymour, Peterborough, UK

The £35,000 compensation limit for failed banks will no doubt stay but should the institutions be allowed to be regarded as seperate for a 12 month period following merger to prevent a sudden outflow of funds.

Alan , Whitley Bay

Alan Stokes, Whitley Bay, UK

I would have thought that it would be more difficult to get a quick decision from the EU on this merger. It would be for the EU to decide whether this was anti-competitive, not the British government. Don't hold your breath.

Stephen S, Stockport, Cheshire

The head office must be in London as this is one of the two main global financial centres. It has the infrastructure, the contacts, the international connections and a huge talent pool. Why serious business people would pander to Scottish politicians rather than use logic I will never understand.

Tim, Hong Kong, China

As a customer of LLoyds I spread some of my savings to Halifax less than six months ago, so that they would be protected. Now all my savings will be back with Lloyds, which is what I didn't want. Who don't they own?

Shirley HIscox, huntingdon, england

Lioydes tsb, the problem with this deail is that all the bed debt that the accountant have hiding will hit Lioydes like a hammer. But the greed of Lioydes will not care as they think they have a good deal. The only hand gordon brown had in this would be to prop them up if it goes wrong.

oliver, colchester,

Dealing with redundancies on this scale, an estimated 40,000 , will present significant logistical difficulties such as factoring in time for consultation. It is to be hoped that the employees receive generous severence terms, as those employees did who were made redundant in the 2002 merger.

Rachel at Averta Employment Lawyers, solihull, UK

Can Howard ride horses?

Gordon Brown had no business interfering in this. He's even having to bypass anti-competitive laws to get this through. Which means this move is anti-competitive.

It's a terrible move. HBOS should have been allowed to fail.

This is a volcano that needs to release. Let it

Laura Roberts, London, UK

If 40,000 fear for their jobs then Andy Hornby and the other executives at HBOS must be at the top of the list to go. They engineered this balls up.

Chris, Chipping Norton,