Grandees go head to head over failed branch bid In written evidence to the Committee, Sir Win admitted he had met with Lord Levene on January 27, 2012, but had not received any report from him criticising Co-op bid. Sir Win wrote: "I can only surmise that a Powerpoint presentation had been prepared by Lord Levene's advisers and was intended as a 'leave behind" after the discussion but which in fact was omitted to be left behind. We certainly have no record of it; nor of its being referenced by Lord Levene again in any of a number of subsequent discussions. During the more than three-hour hearing, Lord Levene claimed that former Bank of England Governor, Lord King, had told him in a private meeting that NBNK's bid for the so-called "Project Verde" branches would fail for "political reasons." The Committee is expected to write to Lord King to ask him to comment on Lord Levene'sstatement, but is not likely to call on him to give evidence in person. Lord Levene said: "I didn't really feel I could find too many people that wanted to dig into this... It was only when the rumour and scuttlebutt crystalised in me being summoned by the Governor of the Bank of England to tell me that [NBNK's bid had failed for political reasons]. He added: "I was told by the Governor of the Bank of England that the decision was being made for political reasons." According to Lord Levene, he had a one-on-one meeting with Lord King on May 28, 2012 and a further meeting two months later after NBNK had been told by Lloyds its bid for the branches had not been successful. Lord Levene said he now believed Lloyds had negotiated with NBNK in "bad faith" over the branch sale and had been "swayed by political considerations." There was considerable pressure on Lloyds to accept a bid from a mutual [such as Co-Op]. That is what I believe," he said. He added: "I believe Lloyds was swayed by political considerations. I would say their assessment of our bid... was not done fairly. Asked by the committee if the assessment was in "bad faith," Lord Levene agreed. Lord Levene pointed to the coalition agreement of the current government and its clauses stipulating the need to encourage the mutual sector. "There seems to have been a view that if the creation of a new challenger bank would be created by a mutual this would have been another tick in the box for the goals set out [in the coalition agreement]," he said. NBNK was backed by several large fund managers, including Aviva, Baillie Gifford, F&C and Invesco Perpetual, but Mr Hoffman said Lloyds had declined to meet with the investors, despite it questioning their commitment to finance the deal. [Lloyds] asked for letters of comfort, we gave them. It was Lloyds that turned down meetings with our investors where they would have set out their clear intents," said Mr Hoffman. Lloyds had insisted the NBNK bid failed in part because of questions about its funding. However, the main reason the bid failed, according to Lloyds, is that NBNK offered less for the branches than the Co-op. This view was supported by a report written by Lloyds's financial adviser on the sale, JP Morgan Cazenove. Asked whether he intended to take legal action based on his claims, Lord Levene said he would not be doing so, but added that certain investors in NBNK could do so once the Committee produced its final report on the bidding process.