Bail-out bid put into action
Three of Britain's biggest banks have been thrown a lifeline by the Government as part of a £37bn rescue.
The Royal Bank of Scotland could get up to £20m of funding while a further £17bn is to go into HBOS and Lloyds TSB whose merger is being renegotiated.
The Government could end up with a stake of about 40% in the merged firm and own about 60% of RBS. Barclays is planning to raise £6.5m from investors.