The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has sold almost sixty per cent of its shares to the British government after shareholders refused to buy into the struggling bank. RBS executives had been hoping to fill the coffers from the sale of over 23 billion shares to its investors. The high sale price (65.5p each, 10p dearer than those sitting on the stock market) and falling consumer confidenc...

The Royal Bank of Scotland and RBS-owned bank Natwest announced on November 24th that they will commit to freezing overdrafts for small businesses for 12 months. During the period of the freeze, businesses with a turnover of less than £1m will not have to make payments on their overdrafts and will not incur any new charges. The decision is aimed at making borrowing and pricing easier ...

Citigroup and all associated companies have been saved from the brink of collapse by the United States government. The rescue package, thought to be in the region of $20 billion, will protect the bank’s assets from losses on $306 billion of high-yield bonds. On October 3rd, 2008, Congress passed a law that allowed the US Federal Reserve to spend up to $700 billion in protecting major ...

The subject of global recession has become all too familiar during the month of November. Gordon Brown prepared the UK for this event back in October, stating that recession was "likely". Weeks later, with falling house prices and rising unemployment, the questions making the headlines each day centre on how deep this recession will be and how long it will last. On the 17th o...

Citibank, one of the largest consumer banking companies in the world, has announced that extensive redundancies are inevitable if the bank is to pull itself out of financial oblivion. 52,000 jobs are expected to face the axe if Citibank fails to procure enough funds to stem the flow of cash out of its vaults. In April of last year, Citibank sent 17,000 people to the dole office in an ...