HSBC

Melanie Bien asks if banks' recent results are supported by underlying lending figures?

Six UK bank bosses are to form a taskforce designed to help get lending to businesses back on track.

HSBC reported profits doubled to £7bn for the first half of the year, with gains in every region apart from North America.

Chancellor George Osborne has called for a tight rein on pay and bonuses and increased lending from the banks as they prepare to announce a recovery in profits this week.

Nine out of ten of the best two and three-year mortgages are only available direct to consumers, according to moneysupermarket.com.

The UK's four major banks have passed EU stress tests, although five Spanish banks failed, the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) said.

Philip Saunders and Max King, multi-asset portfolio managers at Investec, give five reasons to be positive

The euro rocketed to a two-month high of $1.29 and sterling jumped two cents to almost $1.54 after the Fed confessed that the US economy may not recover for five or six years.

The City watchdog is considering whether Britain can claim exemption from European laws that will introduce the toughest pay restrictions in the world.

There is now a good case for using structured products as part of a portfolio, writes Ian Lowes, managing director of Lowes Financial Management and founder of StructuredProductReview.com