Revealed: UK banks' exposure to eurozone debt

As the eurozone crisis reaches a crescendo, the Bank of England has revealed just how much exposure UK banks have to the region's most troubled economies.

The Bank's latest Financial Stability Report, released late last week, revealed just how much risk is posed to the UK's four largest banks by the eurozone. The chart below shows the exposure of each bank to retail and corporate clients in the worst affected eurozone countries, consisting of Spain, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Portugal. Out of the big four, Barclays had the most exposure to retail clients as a percentage of its core tier 1 capital as at the end of September. HSBC is the most exposed to Greece in terms of lending to corporates, while RBS has the most exposure to corpor...