Linklaters chief financial officer Peter Hickman is among a list of former Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBoS) bosses who could face a fresh probe by the financial and regulatory authorities into the bank’s collapse.

A 600-page report by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) into the bank’s £20.5bn failure placed revived scrutiny on the bank’s former executives and threw open the chance of reopening a probe into the individuals’ actions.

The report also questioned why just one executive, corporate lending head Peter Cummings, was formally investigated for his role in the banking crisis.

Hickman, who was group risk director at HBoS until it went bust, is understood to have instructed lawyers to advise him on any potential investigation, though the name of the law firm could not be confirmed.

Eight other former HBoS executives including chairman Lord Stevenson, audit committee chairman Anthony Hobson and non-executive director Kate Nealon instructed Ashurst three years ago in relation to the fall-out of the collapse, with partners Edward Sparrow and David Capps leading. 

Ashurst released a statement following the report’s publication that said its clients “disagree with a number of the conclusions” of the report, “particularly the way in which it downplays the unforeseen and unforeseeable effect of the financial crisis on HBoS”.

Now the FCA and PRA are expected to examine whether there is evidence to launch an investigation into any former senior managers of HBoS “with a view to prohibition proceedings” following the publication of the review. 

Part of the review, authored by Blackstone Chambers’ Andrew Green QC, called on the regulators to “now consider whether any former senior managers of HBoS should be the subject of an enforcement investigation with a view to prohibition proceedings”.

The FCA and PRA are expected to conclude a review as to whether enforcement action should be taken next year.

Meanwhile, Linklaters’ role in the acquisiton of HBoS by Lloyds Bank, which bought out the lender in 2008, is to face scrutiny in the High Court in 2016 after a judge ruled correspondance between the firm and the bank prior to the takeover was not subject to privilege.

The Lawyer revealed in November Lloyds had abandoned plans to appeal the ruling. Disclosure on the bank’s legal battle with 6,000 of its shareholders over the HBoS acquisition has begun and is expected to conclude next spring.

Hickman and Linklaters declined to comment.