RBS

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds have both agreed to defer bonuses in return for an additional £40bn of taxpayers' money as part of a deal with the Government that will break up two of Britain's biggest lenders.

Anger over bank bonuses gathered a new head of steam yesterday as the country's top regulator urged lenders to pare back their payouts and news emerged of a £5m "golden hello" for 11 traders at the state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland.

HSBC overtook the Government-backed banks to become the most competitive mortgage lender during Q3 2009, according to analysis from Evaluate Technologies.

The European Commission wants Royal Bank of Scotland to sacrifice up to 10 per cent of its small business customers as the penalty for receiving billions of pounds in state aid.

Aviva's chief financial officer is to join the board of Aviva as a non-executive director.

Bank of England governor, Mervyn King, says RBS and HBOS were within hours of a liquidity shortfall on 6 October 2008, and the day after, as the country's financial system came to the brink of collapse.

Royal Bank of Scotland is to consider a £3bn-£4bn share issue to reduce the stake it would hand to the government for joining its toxic assets insurance scheme and has approached its biggest investors about the idea, the FT reports.

The disgraced financier Bernie Madoff has received a $13,800 (£8,500) tax rebate, angering clients who lost billions in the biggest Ponzi scheme in Wall Street history.

Staff at Britain's state-backed lenders were dealt a double blow yesterday after Royal Bank of Scotland slashed the pension benefits of 62,500 workers and Lloyds Banking Group cut another 200 jobs according to the Telegraph.

Royal Bank of Scotland is to cap future increases in pensionable pay to 2% a year or the rate of inflation, which ever is lower.