Smoke signals

Banking: With Lloyds ready to raise a record amount of fresh capital, Eric Daniels can claim vindication in an epic tussle with the authorities – even if not all of his investors are left happy, writes Patrick Jenkins
Royal Bank of Scotland signs the final agreement to formally enter the government’s scheme next month, paving the way for £240bn of toxic assets to be insured
High-street banks are set to write to hundreds of county courts asking them to strike out consumer claims, following their Supreme Court victory on bank charges for unauthorised overdrafts
The Financial Reporting Council is outlining an amended Combined Code – the standard for good governance and shareholder rights for all groups listed in the UK
More than 99 per cent of investors in the bank wave through its plans in spite of voicing frustration and anger with the directors at its general meeting

Banking: With Lloyds ready to raise a record amount of fresh capital, Eric Daniels can claim vindication in an epic tussle with the authorities – even if not all of his investors are left happy, writes Patrick Jenkins

The Bank of England’s year-long concealment of what was at one point a £61.6bn line of emergency finance to two of the UK’s largest banks will take some beating, writes Andrew Hill
The ‘behavioural’ conditions imposed on Royal Bank of Scotland’s global banking and markets team were part of the swamp of detail on how its competitive position should be hobbled, says Andrew Hill
UK taxpayers are offloading less risk than meets the eye in the deals with Lloyds and RBS. Their exposure is not ended, only made less visible – and provided free of charge

This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning. Andrew Hill asks, who will come out best from the battle for Britain’s banks?
The UK government has much to do if its big banks are ever to operate under their own steam without government support
Chancellor of the exchequer, Alistair Darling, is set to hand the recalcitrant Lloyds Banking Group the get out of jail (almost) free card it was angling for – and a few bells and whistles, too
Stephen Hester, chief executive of RBS, has given the clearest indication yet there could be a softer landing than feared for a property industry facing up to the reality of its £225bn of outstanding debt
Take a walk down Bank Street and follow the fortunes of some of the world’s largest banks as they navigate the global financial crisis
Examines relative size of business and government
The UK bank’s chief executive is sticking to his mantra: the worst is behind us. But is that the case?
The Treasury, desperate to bury ‘light-touch’ regulation, must have winced when Stephen Hester hailed the new ‘light-touch’ asset protection scheme
The Tories have said that if they win next year’s elections, they might sell the government’s stakes in Lloyds Banking Group and RBS to the public
From its unintended position deep within the UK banking sector labyrinth, the government is hunting for the exit signs