Share
Nils Pratley’s piece at the Guardian on RBS and Lloyds is very good.  Two quotes sum up the situation quite well.
First, in regards to Lloyds, Pratley says:
Royal Bank of Scotland’s shares down almost 20% in two days; Lloyds’s shares an oasis of tranquillity. Those market reactions tell the story of the banking bailout part 3, [...]

Share
Lloyds are looking to avoid the embrace of government by going to existing shareholders to raise capital and sidestep the draconian break-up solution foisted upon RBS by Neelie Kroes. According to Bloomberg, this is the largest rights issue ever for a British company and equates to $34 billion.
All of this must be excruciating for Lloyds [...]

Share
At the weekend I wrote about Alistair Darling’s about-face on breaking up to big to fail financial institutions. Apparently, this was not a case of labour changing tack and finding regulatory religion, but rather of the European Union imposing its will on the British government. The EU is also dictating policy in Germany, the Netherlands [...]

Share
This comes via the Telegraph:
UK Financial Investments (UKFI) said in its annual report that its loss on the two stakes – 70pc of RBS and 43pc of Lloyds Banking Group – had reached £10.9bn at the end of June.
The losses, which are not yet realised, have been wracked up since Gordon Brown was forced to [...]

Share
Lloyds TSB has announced that it will buy rival HBOS for 232 pence a share. Back in May 2007, just over a year ago, HBOS shares were trading for almost £17 each. However, HBOS closed trading today at £1.47, sustaining a loss of over 90% in 16 months time.
While HBOS is often touted as [...]