Leading banking operations to offer £94bn in new business loans

People in banking jobs are learning that RBS and Lloyds will give out £94 billion in new business loans, the Chancellor announced today (March 24th).

In his final budget speech before the general election, Alistair Darling promised that around half of those new business loans would be offered to small and medium-sized entities.

Both RBS and Lloyds Banking Group still have state-owned stakes, although the Financial Services Authority is looking to hire a new figure with the aim of selling those shares.

Mr Darling also revealed that a bonus tax on people in banking jobs had raised £2 billion in revenue for the Treasury during the past year.

The Chancellor also backed calls for a global tax on bank transactions which also has the support of Germany and pledged that more than one million people in the UK who do not have accounts should be given access to basic banking operations.

However, he did downgrade economic forecasts for 2011 to 3-3.5 per cent growth, although predicted growth this year of 1-1.25 per cent is in line with economic forecasts.

Updated: 25 March 2010.
Categories: banking-and-financial-services, market-and-industry-news.