© press | first group to go on trial is HBOS bankers who are charged with fraudulent trading, money laundering, and corruption.

The UK is set to follow Iceland’s footsteps as the first group of top Bankers are to go on trial. Authorities have now begun the process of arresting and prosecuting the bankers who were responsible for the crash of 2008, the first group to go on trial is HBOS bankers who are charged with fraudulent trading, money laundering, and corruption.

The first trial of its type will be heard at Southwark Crown Court. Some predict that this will open flood gates for similar trials in the UK and around the world.

Presstv.com reports: Two former senior HBOS managers and six other defendants will appear in court this month. The heavily postponed trial was originally scheduled to start in the beginning of the year. The defendants were initially charged in 2013.

Those charged also include bankers David Mills and Michael Bancroft, as well as their wives, who are accused of giving money and “numerous high-value gifts” to HBOS managers in exchange for favors.

The alleged scam was exposed by Thames Valley Police after a two year investigation code-named Operation Hornet.

HBOS collapsed in 2008 and was bought by UK-backed Lloyds TSB. Its one-time head of corporate lending, Peter Cummings, was fined £500,000 and was banned from the banking industry.

The British government bailed out Lloyds at the height of the financial crisis in 2008 at a cost of some £20 billion, handing the state a 43-percent stake in the bank.