Prevention rather than cure over Lloyds/HBOS competition fears

As Business Secretary Lord Mandelson clears the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS, Which? chief executive, Peter Vicary-Smith, says: "The normal competition regime isn't sufficient to deal with the super-bank that's being created, otherwise the OFT would not have asked for the merger to be referred to the Competition Commission. The OFT will struggle to tackle an institution of this size - it may be able to deal reactively with an abuse of market power, but we strongly believe that prevention is better than cure.

"We accept that there are exceptional circumstances which may make the merger necessary, but steps need to be taken to ensure consumers don't lose out in the long run."