RBS

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has backed proposals to give the public shares in part-nationalised banks RBS and Lloyds.

Shares in Barclays and its peers moved higher in early trading despite the bank's move to settle PPI claims.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) group chief executive Stephen Hester has admitted the government's implicit subsidy to the industry may have fed into bankers' bonuses.

Shares in Barclays were off around 1% in early trading after it abandoned its legal challenge against PPI mis-selling and set aside £1bn to cover customer redress and administration costs.

Royal Bank of Scotland, the state-backed bank, has reported a loss of £528m in Q1 2011 after paying £469m to use the government's Asset Protection Scheme (APS).

Banking shares led the FTSE 100 lower late morning after Lloyds Banking Group revealed it had set aside £3.2bn to compensate customers for missold payment protection insurance.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is planning to sell £1.6bn of legacy loans, marking the largest property loan sale of its kind in the UK.

COMBATING INFLATION

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is making its first foray into retail fund management with the launch of cautious managed and balanced managed portfolios.

Pimco, the world's largest bond fund, has called on Greece, Ireland and Portugal to step outside the eurozone temporarily and restructure their debts unless the currency bloc agrees to a radical change of course.