The British government is ready to exit the banking business, even if it means that it will record a loss on some of its holdings, the International New York Times reported. George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer, said in a speech here on Wednesday night that the government would begin to sell down the 80 percent stake that it holds in the Royal Bank of Scotland. The speech was at the Lord Mayor’s annual banquet for the financial industry at the Mansion House in the City of London. The government is projected to sell some R.B.S. shares at a loss — at least initially.

HSBC is poised to unveil plans to cut thousands more jobs in its international empire as the scandal-hit lender struggles to knock its business back into shape, ThisisMONEY.co.uk reported. The global giant, which is reeling from allegations it helped clients dodge tax in Swiss bank accounts, is expected to make the announcement at its investor day on June 9. The number of job cuts has yet to be finalised, including how many staff will be affected in the UK. But according to a report on Sky News, between 10,000 and 20,000 around the world could face the axe.

The liquidators of a pair of failed Cayman Islands-based hedge funds run by a former Harvard quarterback are suing Barclays PLC to claw back some $80 million they say was illegally funneled to the bank to cover margin calls, The Wall Street Journal reported. The offshore funds--ICP Strategic Credit Income Fund Ltd. and ICP Strategic Credit Income Master Fund Ltd. -- were so-called feeder funds managed by ICP Asset Management LLC, a money-management firm founded by Thomas C. Priore. Lawyers for the liquidators said in a suit filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York that Mr.

Royal Bank of Scotland announced yesterday that it has agreed to sell a portfolio of Ulster Bank loans in Northern Ireland to an entity affiliated with Cerberus Capital Management, the Irish Times reported. It said the disposal of this portfolio represented the “final material transaction for RBS Capital Resolution in Northern Ireland”. RCR is the UK bank’s workout vehicle for problem loans. This would appear to be RBS drawing a line under the deleveraging of non-core assets at Ulster Bank’s Northern Ireland operation relating to the global financial crash.

Banks have paid billions. Regulators and prosecutors have extracted guilty pleas from financial institutions. Dozens of employees have been fired, and at least one chief executive has lost his job. Now, on Tuesday, the first trader in the sprawling, half-decade-old investigation into the rigging of global benchmark interest rates will go on trial in Southwark Crown Court, the International New York Times reported. The British authorities have charged Tom Hayes, a 35-year-old former trader from Citigroup and UBS with eight counts of conspiracy to commit fraud. Mr.

Research by ComRes and R3, the insolvency trade body, has found that the UK’s insolvency profession helped around 6,700 businesses continue trading in some way after entering formal insolvency. This, R3 says, amounts to 41% of formal insolvencies, economia reported. In total, the profession helped 10,400 businesses continue operating, either through formal insolvency or through working with a practitioner to avoid insolvency. These businesses employed approximately 540,000 after they received support.

Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland were among six banks to be fined a total of $5.7 billion (£3.8 billion) by British and US regulators over allegations that they rigged the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market, The Standard reported. The settlement, which also involved US banks JP Morgan, Bank of America and Citi, as well as Switzerland’s UBS, means banks have handed authorities around $10 billion to deal with the scandal. Barclays, Citi, JPMorgan and RBS also all pleaded guilty to a US antitrust violation.

Lloyds Banking Group is planning to sell €4.2 billion of face value legacy loans connected with Ireland in what will be one of the biggest such real estate portfolio sales here since the financial crash in late 2008, the Irish Times reported. Dubbed Project Poseidon, the disposal covers the vast bulk of what remains from Bank of Scotland’s former operations in Ireland. It has been brought to market by Deloitte with first bids due to be lodged in early June.

Former UK employees of Nortel Networks, the insolvent Canadian telecoms firm, could receive up to two thirds of their long-deferred pension claims after the US and Canadian courts ruled that the company’s remaining assets should be equally divided among all the insolvent parts of the group. Accountancy firm PwC, a financial adviser to the trustees of the Nortel UK Pension Scheme since the company’s 2009 insolvency, said that the unprecedented joint ruling by the courts could set an example in future insolvency cases involving highly integrated multinational companies.

The Bank of England has cut the amount that it expects the UK economy to grow this year to 2.4 per cent, down from a previous forecast of 2.9 per cent, The Independent reported. In its quarterly inflation report, the central bank trimmed its forecast for UK economic growth over the next three years and reinforced expectations for an first interest rate rise in around a year's time. The fresh projections follow official data showing that growth slowed sharply to just 0.3% in the first quarter of the year, though many expect the reading to be revised once more data is available.