UK Treasury may take £50bn stake to shore up high-street banks

A £40-50 billion taxpayer-funded life-belt for high street banks is being considered by ministers as a last resort.

The Government could end up with sizeable stakes in Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS by injecting fresh capital into them in return for preference shares.

The idea would be to beef up the banks’ balance sheets while partly protecting taxpayers by taking a type of share that gives priority over ordinary shareholders.

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, is understood to see the scheme as a last resort if other measures fail to restore confidence and bank shares continue to plunge. But in the Commons yesterday, he gave warning about the danger of rushing forward with a scheme before the details were properly worked out.

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