RBS and Standard Chartered 'weakest' links in BoE stress tests

Further £10bn needs to be put aside

All seven UK banks have passed the Bank of England's latest stress tests but Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered were revealed to be in the weakest positions, and had to raise capital during the process.

The Bank's Financial Stability Report, which is published twice annually, aims to set out the central bank's assessment of UK financial services in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. Although the seven largest lenders are said to be in good economic health, with Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC, Nationwide and Santander all clearing the stress tests,  RBS and Standard Chartered were found to have the lowest capital reserves when the stress-test scenarios were run, the Financial Policy Committee said. RBS, one of the banks bailed out by the government and still 73%-owned by the UK tax...