Lloyds under pressure to offload £7bn Scottish Widows

Lloyds is coming under pressure from shareholders to sell Scottish Widows, which could fetch the banking giant about £7bn.

Investors argue it will become more expensive for Lloyds, which is 40%-owned by the taxpayer, to own Widows when new Basel III rules are introduced, The Guardian reports. Under the new regime to be implemented in 2012/13, banks will be not be able to count capital in their insurance subsidiaries as "common capital" that can also be deployed to cover their mainstream banking operations. Several shareholders believe selling Widows would ensure Lloyds avoids the build-up of pressure for banks to hold more capital to prevent a repeat of the banking crisis of 2008. Lloyds Core Tier 1 ra...