Lloyds Banking Group, which is 39% state-owned, paid more than £1m to 25 of its staff last year. . .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21926665#

The major UK banks saw a 45% rise in core profits in 2012, but that hike was wiped out by a mix of regulation and their own mistakes, a KPMG report says . . .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21916653#

The recent financial crisis not only revealed weaknesses in risk management, control and governance processes at banks, but also highlighted the need to improve the quality of external audits of banks. Given the central role banks play in contributing to financial stability, and therefore the need for market confidence in the quality of external audits of banks’ financial statements, the Basel Committee is issuing for consultation this guidance on external audits of banks. . .

http://www.bis.org/publ/bcbs244.htm

The European Commission has today adopted nine regulatory and implementing technical standards to complement the obligations defined under the Regulation on OTC derivatives, central counterparties (CCPs) and trade repositories (the so-called European Markets Infrastructure Regulation – EMIR) which was adopted on 4 July and entered into force on 16 August 2012 (see MEMO/12/232). They were developed by the European Supervisory Authorities and have been endorsed by the European Commission without modification. The adoption of these technical standards finalises requirements for the mandatory clearing and reporting of transactions, in line with the EU’s G20 commitment made in Pittsburgh in September 2009. . .

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-12-1419_en.htm?locale=en

The Bank of England today published its first survey of banks’ liabilities. . .

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/news/2013/057.aspx