Branson: Guarantee bank deposits

LONDON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- British entrepreneur Richard Branson said the near-collapse of Halifax Bank of Scotland threatened Virgin Atlantic.

In an interview with the U.S. cable channel Fox News, Branson used his airline's close call as an argument for government guarantees of all bank deposits.

"HBOS looked like it was going to go bankrupt in Europe so Virgin Atlantic rings up HBOS, we have a billion pounds on deposit -- not really our money, it's people who've bought tickets, people who've bought holidays -- and we said, 'We want it out. We want to move it to another bank.'

"They said, 'Well, we actually, er -- Look at the small print, you can't have it out right now,'" he said.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers in the United States helped trigger a run on HBOS. The bank was rescued by Lloyds.

Branson said Virgin might have ended up collapsing for reasons that had nothing to do with the company.

"Once you've got big banking rumors, it's quite likely that that bank will disappear because everybody will take their money out of it," he said.