As reported by Your Money, last week the Barcelona-based Sabadell announced a shock £1.7bn bid for TSB; as a result, TSB shares surged in value by a quarter.

However, concerns have since been raised that investors who purchased TSB shares when the bank was floated on the stock market last June could lose out on a loyalty bonus; Lloyds offered investors a bonus share for every 20 shares purchased, as long as they held the shares for a calendar year. As Sabadell’s bid was made less than nine months after the flotation, investors have been concerned that the bonus would not be paid.

However, a spokesperson for Lloyds (still a 50 per cent stakeholder in TSB) has announced that investors will be fully compensated; “If an offer made for TSB Banking Group goes wholly unconditional or closes prior to 25th June 2015, the group will ensure that investors who would have been entitled to bonus shares are fully compensated.”

“Investors will receive the cash value of those bonus shares at the applicable offer price.”

The bid offered by Sabadell valued shared as 340p each, a 31 per cent premium to the price it floated for last June. TSB is said to be seriously considering the offer, although it will need to be examined by the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Competition & Markets Authority and the Takeover Panel before reaching fruition.

Responding to news, investor campaigner Mark Taber welcomed Lloyds’ pledge, but compared the preferential treatment and assurances offered to TSB investors with the bank’s treatment of bondholders. As reported by Your Money last month, Lloyds has made an official request to cancel high interest bonds that were issued to investors in 2009.

“Bondholders are supposed to come above shareholders in the pecking order,” remarked Taber. “Lloyds is not acting with any fairness towards investors who helped prop it up during the financial crisis.”