Treasury undercharged banks by £4bn - papers

The National Audit Office says that ministers failed to conduct the necessary "breadth and depth of analysis" on the banks. The watchdog's report also finds the asset protection scheme did not go far enough to achieve its goal of bolstering lending to businesses but concedes it was successful in allowing the Treasury to maintain financial stability, reports the Guardian. The APS was originally intended as a backstop for troubled loans by Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. When it was finally announced in the autumn of 2009 only RBS participated. Lloyds paid £2.5bn to ...