From Robert Peston’s blog this morning:
… last night a trio of the UK’s biggest banks - Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, and Lloyds TSB - signalled to the Alistair Darling that they’d like to see the colour of taxpayers’ money rather quicker than he might have expected.
According to Peston, the three have asked for up to £15bn each in capital injections, in exchange for a Treasury stake in the banks.
On paper, Lloyds TSB, RBS and Barclays don’t have a pressing need for additional capital.
But they have become concerned that they are being weakened significantly by investors’ perception that they are short of capital and their balance sheets need to be strengthened.
Darling reportedly had no “fully elaborated” rescue plan to offer.
In capitalisation terms Barclays is certainly the weakest. It’s a view long held by some in the market that the bank will need to bolster its core capital ratios at some point - if only to bring it into line with the industry standard. At the other end of the spectrum, though, Lloyds TSB has only just been wed to HBOS - a ceremony presided over by the government. Some dowry.
