Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland has congratulated its Chief Executive Mary Craig on being awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List.

Chairman Christine Lenihan, speaking on behalf of the Board and colleagues, said:

“Mary’s commitment to the Foundation in Scotland, and to the voluntary sector as a whole, has been – and continues to be - exemplary. For that leadership and dedication to be recognised in this way is genuinely well deserved. On behalf of her colleagues and the Trustees, I offer Mary our warmest congratulations.”

Responding, Mary Craig OBE said:

“I was delighted and proud, but also surprised, to receive this honour. It’s an award I am happy to share with my colleagues at the Foundation in Scotland as what we have achieved has been entirely through a team effort.

“It is also pleasing that the voluntary sector and the role it plays in Scotland has been acknowledged. Times are difficult for the Foundation just now, but I hope that this award shows that what we do is valued and is not being forgotten.”


Notes to Editors

1. Mary was born and educated in Lanarkshire and worked in the TSB from 1969 to 1997, during which she progressed from being a junior teller to a Senior Manager. A member of the Council of the Institute of Bankers in Scotland, Mary sat on the Education Committee and was awarded a Fellowship by the Institute in recognition of her services to banking as well as to the Institute itself in 1997.

Mary left the Bank in 1997 to join the Foundation in a role working directly with charities in West Central Scotland, and was appointed Deputy Chief Executive in July 2000. She became Chief Executive in January 2009. Mary is also Chair of Evaluation support Scotland and in 2009 was invited to become a Fellow of the RSA. Over the years Mary has been involved with many charities, including formal roles, such as Chair of The Child and Family Trust, and has a leading role in working with Scotland’s other charitable funders.

2. Since the Foundation in Scotland was established in 1985, over 12,000 awards have been made to charities working with disadvantaged communities and people across Scotland, that have benefited from almost £85m disbursed by the Foundation. Since 1997, the Foundation has allocated around £30m to support salaries – and therefore jobs - in the charitable sector.

3. An independent organisation and one of the leading charitable funders in Scotland, the bulk of the Foundation’s income has historically come through a covenant that legally obliges Lloyds Banking Group to share 1% of its pre-tax profits per annum with the four Foundations that cover the UK.

However, the losses predicted by the Group meant that there were virtually no monies due to the Foundation in 2010. For the last year, the Foundation has been in discussions with the Banking Group to explore a range of options on how best to enable the Foundation to continue its work until the Group returns to profit. But, to date, these have failed due to the Group seeking to tie the offer of a funding package for the next four years to a reduction in the terms of the covenant and a loss of the Foundation’s independent status.

In December 2009, the other three Foundations signed up to that deal but the Foundation in Scotland declined to do so. The Foundation’s suggested counterproposal, which would be cost-neutral to the taxpayer, is to receive funds as a short term loan repayable when the Group returned to profit, leaving the Foundation’s independence intact. The Banking Group rejected this but the Foundation is still prepared to seek an amicable resolution to the situation.

Trustees are currently considering all options open to them going forward, based on legal and financial advice of what is in the best interests of the Foundation and the charities it supports. As shareholders, the Foundation took up its entitlement to buy shares from the Banking Group’s two Rights Issues in 2009, and once these have been sold and monies realised, Trustees will be in a better position to make informed decisions about the way ahead. But the Foundation does hope to restart its grantmaking activities in the early part of 2010.