A number of banks face direct action protests in the UK starting on Monday, including hunger strikes outside Clydesdale Bank’s Glasgow headquarters, Danske Bank’s branch in Belfast and Lloyds’ offices in Bristol.
In Glasgow, the Scottish businessman John Guidi, a former property developer, will pitch his tent outside the bank claiming that he is being made homeless after his £16m property business collapsed. He alleges he was mis-sold controversial tailored business loans in the early 2000s.
He says Clydesdale then abruptly withdrew funding in 2012 and transferred the loans to its former owner National Australia Bank, which in turn sold the portfolio to the private equity firm Cerberus in 2015.
It is Guidi’s second hunger strike. He suspended his first in March when the CEO of Clydesdale’s parent company, David Duffy, agreed to look into his case.
But Guidi said: “Duffy made a lot of promises to me about the justice of my case. After four months of negotiations he tells me he can do nothing for me. What a disgraceful betrayal.”
