First Minister Alex Salmond has received no direct assurances from the directors of Lloyds TSB that the company will safeguard Scottish jobs in its proposed £12.2bn merger with HBOS.

First Minister Alex Salmond has received no direct assurances from the directors of Lloyds TSB that the company will safeguard Scottish jobs in its proposed £12.2bn merger with HBOS.

After a meeting with directors of Lloyds TSB in London, Mr Salmond defended himself against charges from Scottish LibDem leader Tavish Scott that he had "thrown in the towel" on retaining an independent Scottish bank.

"My preference is for an independent bank but my duty is to make sure, whatever the circumstances are, that Scotland gets the best-possible deal," said Mr Salmond yesterday.

"My preference would be for HBOS to continue as an independent organisation because the fears about the effect of mergers on jobs and decision- making are well known. Equally, I have a responsibility to put the case to Lloyds TSB in terms of retaining jobs and decision- making in Scotland."

An estimated 17,000 HBOS jobs are based in Scotland and it is feared that thousands will be lost if the merger goes through.

Mr Salmond said he used the meeting to press home the "strong case" for maintaining jobs in Scotland in the event of the merger proceeding. "We did get agreement that we could feed key information about Scotland as a home of financial sector decision-making to the integration teams if indeed the merger goes ahead," he added.

"The argument we put forward today is that Scotland, not just Edinburgh, is the place to do business because we have better-quality workers and graduates available and it is a better place to do business to be cost-effective - not cheap but 30% or 40% cheaper than the City of London, for example, in terms of pursuing high-quality financial service activities."

Mr Salmond, who was complimentary towards Lloyds TSB, said that during a "constructive meeting" the bank repeated commitments to focus on Scottish jobs and to keep the Bank of Scotland as a note- issuing bank with headquarters on the Mound in Edinburgh.

Mr Scott also travelled to London yesterday to accuse Mr Salmond of giving up on maintaining an independent Bank of Scotland. He told reporters at Westminster that Mr Salmond was throwing in the towel and assuming the takeover is going to go ahead.

"He shouldn't be here talking to Lloyds TSB. He should be talking to the Chancellor," said Mr Scott. "What Alex Salmond is doing is mixing up his role as SNP leader and his role as First Minister. His principal duty as First Minister is to be engaging with the UK Government and saying, given the taxpayer investment in the banking sector, why should this merger go ahead?"

Mr Salmond responded that he has talked to the Chancellor about the proposed takeover and urged the Treasury to make the same provisions for capitalisation available for HBOS as an independent entity as is on offer for the merged company.

The LibDems hope for cross-party support behind their debate in the Scottish Parliament tomorrow to retain an independent Bank of Scotland.