UK high street banks prepare to reveal bonuses

High street banks are being urged to show restraint on pay as they prepare to declare the size of their bonus pots for 2014, at a time when the sector faces fresh scrutiny over its conduct.

RBS cleared of forcing clients into insolvency to buy up assets

Royal Bank of Scotland has been cleared of deliberately engineering the collapse of some of its business customers, but has decided to sell off the £3.2bn commercial property portfolio at the centre of the row.

Sovereign Debt and Beyond: Toward a New Magna Carta?

Source: The Globalist

Alexander Mirtchev and Norman Bailey

The global debt burden appears to have gathered an unstoppable momentum, prompting divergent reactions. The world economy cannot count on growth to solve the global debt problem — and stimulus measures are not a sustainable solution. In the second installment in the series “The Search for a New Global Equilibrium,” Dr. Alexander Mirtchev and Dr. Norman Bailey explain why the solutions currently being offered are wholly inadequate to the scale of the problem, and argue the time is ripe for a “new Magna Carta” — a redefinition of the social contract among the government, Main Street and Wall Street.

MPs: Sale of RBS or Lloyds 'not for years'

There is a risk that the £66bn invested in RBS and Lloyds Banking Group by the government may never be recovered, a parliamentary committee has warned In a report into the sale of Northern Rock, the Public Accounts Committee said the sale of the bank in 2011 was "fortunate", and Lloyds and RBS may not be sold "for many years".

Osborne confirms banks must ringfence retail banking

Chancellor George Osborne has backed most of the recommendations in the Vickers' banking report, including protecting retail banking from riskier investment activities.