Banking giants to be nationalised (companies, money, financial, stock)

[Woof]

By Nigel Morris, Sean Farrell and John Lichfield in Paris
[SIZE=1]Monday, 13 October 2008[/SIZE]

Two of Britain's biggest high street banks will in effect be nationalised today in a dramatic move by the Government that follows a day of international negotiations aimed at co-ordinating a pan-European approach to the global financial crisis.

The development, where the state will take a majority shareholding in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and a large share of Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), emerged as European leaders appeared ready to follow the UK-led strategy of bailing out ailing banks by using public funds to take large stakes in them.
Gordon Brown discussed the rapidly evolving situation with the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, yesterday, ahead of the meeting of eurozone leaders in Paris. Last night, that looked to have set the Continent on the same course as the UK.
But it is in London this morning that the Government will announce that it will inject about £32bn into RBS and HBOS. The Government may take seats on the two banks' boards in return for its support. Up to £17bn of taxpayers' money will be injected into Lloyds TSB and Barclays. The move called into question the proposed Lloyds TSBtakeover of HBOS that just days ago was being backed by the Government, with the deal now certain to be renegotiated to survive. Ministers hope the moves will restore some calm to the markets: Britain's blue-chip companies lost tens of billions of pounds in value last week after catastrophic falls on the London stock exchange......... (continued at Banking giants to be nationalised - Business News, Business - The Independent )