Britain’s banks and financial firms are taking part in a major cyber “war game” exercise today to test their defences against the mounting threat of online attack.

Pressure is mounting in the UK on disgraced former HBOS bosses amid anger over mammoth pension pots and nearly £1m of “bonuses for going bust”.

Former HBOS chief executive James Crosby has stepped down as non-executive director of catering firm Compass Group and said he wants to be stripped of his knighthood in the light of last week’s scathing report into the bank’s collapse.

A stinging report into the collapse of Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) recommended that former senior executives at the bank should be barred from working again in financial services and severely rebuked the regulator for failing to prevent its collapse.

AIB and Permanent TSB both experienced technical outages yesterday which meant that customers were unable to access their accounts.

British lawmaker Andrew Tyrie has said Britain’s finance regulator must ensure customers are being treated fairly as a result of Bank of Ireland raising interest rates for some mortgages.

Plans to make it easier for new banks to challenge the dominance of the current “big four” players were announced by policymakers in the UK today.

A bank that was last year forced to set aside £950m to cover the cost of a mis-selling and money-laundering scandal has declined to comment on reports its chief executive will receive a bonus of around £2m.

Lloyds Banking Group boss Antonio Horta-Osorio has been awarded a £1.5m shares bonus while staff will share a £365m total pot despite further losses in the wake of mammoth provisions for mis-selling claims.

Ulster Bank parent Royal Bank of Scotland is to pay nearly £400m to regulators in the US and UK to settle its involvement in the Libor-rigging scandal.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is expected to face criminal charges and a £500m fine for its role in the Libor rate-rigging scandal today.

Customers of Irish banks have taken cases against their lenders for mis-selling of interest rate swaps valued at almost €150m.

Barclays’ staff were today told to sign up to an ethical code of conduct or quit, as part of the British bank’s crusade to repair its battered reputation.

The man tasked with regulating the City of London in the run-up to the near-collapse of the British banking system has been knighted in the UK’s new year Honours.

Fraud, bribery and rate-rigging in the banking industry were laid bare today as Swiss bank UBS agreed a £940m (€1.16bn) settlement with regulators in another damning day for the sector.

Swiss bank UBS agreed today to pay £940m (€1.1bn) to regulators in the biggest penalty yet from the industry’s Libor-rigging scandal.

HSBC said today that it has agreed to pay US authorities a record 1.9bn (€1.47bn) settlement over accusations that it allowed rogue states and drug cartels to launder billions of pounds through its US arm.

The role that Morgan Stanley and the law firm Matheson played in the ‘Maple Ten’ share transaction will form a key part of the case taken by the DPP against former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick and two directors.

British politicians have been afraid to take tough decisions on airport expansion, the Irishman at the head of British Airways’ parent company told MPs yesterday.

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne will name the next Governor of the Bank of England in a statement to the House of Commons today.

Swiss banking giant UBS has been fined €36.3m by the UK's City watchdog for failings which allowed convicted rogue trader Kweku Adoboli to lose €1.72bn.

The Bank of England could name its new governor this week amid pressure to appoint a successor to Mervyn King before the Chancellor’s autumn statement.

The reporting method used by industry media in the British gas market to assess daily prices — which are at the centre of a regulatory probe — is flawed and easy to manipulate, some traders in the sector say.

Downing Street has called for a speedy inquiry into allegations that Britain’s £300bn (€374bn) wholesale gas market has been “regularly” manipulated by some of the big power companies.

Downing Street has called for a speedy inquiry into allegations that Britain's £300bn (€374.8bn) wholesale gas market has been "regularly" manipulated by some of the big power companies.

The wholesale gas market sees the purchase and sale of energy products - electricity and natural gas – by energy producers and energy retailers.

The head of the British Government's aviation review promised today to lay the ground for the next government to get off to a "flying start" with airport expansion after the 2015 general election.

Ulster Bank has paid more than £18m (€14m) to almost 300,000 customers in the North hit by IT problems over the summer.

The financial regulator in Britain contacted the Central Bank over 2008 and 2009 because it was concerned about the way Quinn Insurance was underwriting business in the UK.

The UK's City watchdog warned Barclays two years ago that appointing Bob Diamond as chief executive could prove unsuitable, documents revealed today.

When British businessman Colin Jones approached his local bank for a loan in 2007, he had little idea what an “interest rate swap” was, let alone a “structured collar”.

Former Barclays deputy chairman Nigel Rudd has slammed MPs for a “completely unacceptable” attack on the bank’s embattled ex-boss Bob Diamond, it was reported today.

The rate-rigging scandal that has rocked the banking industry showed no signs of abating today as US authorities summoned three British banks for questioning.

Britain's top four banks are reportedly set to take another £1bn (€1.28bn) hit for mis-selling payment protection insurance - bringing the industry total to nearly £8bn (€10.26bn).

Bank of Ireland and AIB have agreed to review their product selling practices in Britain, as part of a wide-reaching probe by Britain’s financial watchdog.

A further seven banks have agreed to review the sale of complex financial products to small businesses and compensate customers where evidence of mis-selling is uncovered, the City watchdog said today.

Bank of England boss Mervyn King told MPs he was not to blame for failing to spot the rate-rigging scandal engulfing the industry amid mounting accusations over the central bank’s role..

The former Barclays director who told staff to lower their interest rate submissions following a misunderstanding with the Bank of England will give evidence to MPs today.

Britain’s biggest banks were tonight embroiled in a criminal investigation after the Serious Fraud Office opened an official inquiry into the rate-rigging affair.

In order for our banks to regain public trust, they need to change their culture, and remember their core purpose — of service to the community, writes Ray Kinsella

A phone call between Barclays boss Bob Diamond and the Bank of Englandultimately led to some of the rate-rigging actions at the heart of the ongoing banking scandal, the bank said yesterday.

Pressure mounted for Barclays Plc chief executive Bob Diamond to quit after Britain’s third-biggest bank sacrificed its chairman over an interest rate rigging scandal that has dealt “a devastating blow” to its reputation.

Bank of England governor Mervyn King launched an attack on the British banking culture yesterday, saying something had gone very wrong with an industry which he derided for resorting to “deceitful” methods to make money.

London’s FTSE 100 Index surged 1.4% higher today as hopes of a resolution to the eurozone crisis offset another day of scandal for Britain’s banking sector.