Royal Bank of Scotland Group denied deliberately forcing the collapse of small business customers in the wake of the 2007 financial crisis after two news organisations published leaked internal documents.

Banco Santander has made an offer to take over Royal Bank of Scotland’s Williams & Glyn business, according to sources, as part of a long-standing plan to grow its market share in Britain.

Britain’s top share index climbed to its highest level in nearly a year yesterday, led higher by miners, and with ITV soaring after a well-received trading update.

Spanish unemployment rose for the first time in a year as the country gears up for a new election after four months of talks to form a coalition collapsed.

The ECB is asking the larger banks it oversees to analyse the risks they would face if the UK left the EU.

Shares in Clydesdale Bank now run by former AIB boss David Duffy rose up to 2.4% yesterday in their London debut, valuing the British lender at about £1.62bn (€2.14bn).

Sterling yesterday continued to slide from its recent heights against the euro, eroding some of the exceptional advantages that have propelled Irish exporters, as British output figures appeared to show that the strong UK currency is punishing its manufacturing industries.

Spanish stocks dropped after elections on Sunday left no clear winner, signalling weeks of political instability ahead.

Royal Bank of Scotland — the parent of Ulster Bank — will sound out potential buyers for Williams & Glyn after receiving a number of approaches while continuing preparations for an initial public offering of the consumer bank.

Investment firms Värde Partners and KKR & Co, along with Deutsche Bank, have agreed to buy General Electric’s Australia and New Zealand financial services unit in what they described as one of the region’s largest private equity deals.

European lenders pushed stocks to a two-month high yesterday, even as they pared gains in the final hour of trading amid a decline in miners and oil and gas companies.

Spanish banking magnate Emilio Botin, who built the country’s Banco Santander into a global financial giant, has died of a heart attack aged 79.

Allied Irish Banks is set to win European Commission approval for a restructuring plan tied to its €21 billion taxpayer rescue, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Banco Santander has offered €4.7bn in shares for a 25% stake in its Brazil unit, in a bid to complete a buyback of the South American business.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Britain’s biggest government-owned lender, has hired Ewen Stevenson from Credit Suisse Group as chief financial officer.

Spain’s Banco Santander posted a third-quarter profit of €1.06bn today – a near nine-fold increase from last year, when the government had forced it to take major provisions to cover soured real estate loans.

Bad loans as a proportion of total lending in Spain rose to a record in June as the country’s weak economy spurred a jump in missed payments.

Spain’s Banco Santander has said net profit for the first quarter fell 26% compared with the same period a year earlier owing to slower economic growth in Brazil and Britain as well as a recession at home.

AIB would have made another €850m at current market value if it had been able to hold off selling its 70% majority shareholding in Poland’s Bank Zachodni until now.

Banco Santander said today that its third-quarter net profits plunged 94% against the same period last year to €100m due to government-imposed provisions against an economic downturn and toxic property loans.

The worst crisis in Pope Benedict’s pontificate deepened when Italian media said at least one cardinal was among those suspected of divulging sensitive documents as part of a power struggle at the top of the Church.

I HAD a call from a reader during the week complaining of Japanese Knotweed.

Concerns that Europe's debt crisis could drag down parts of the continent's banking system hit most global markets today, though social network Facebook's imminent flotation buoyed sentiment on Wall Street.

Britain’s biggest banks saw shares slide today as fears over the eurozone debt crisis were compounded by a far-reaching debt downgrade of Spanish banks.

Spanish stocks have dropped sharply after ratings agency Moody’s downgraded its credit score of 16 Spanish banks in the latest blow to the troubled financial sector.

Moody’s Investors Service cut the long-term debt and deposit ratings of 16 Spanish banks yesterdays, including Banco Santander, the eurozone’s largest, saying the government’s ability to support some banks had weakened.

A private sector solution is not likely amid fear of bad loans and recession, writes Sinead Cruise

A group of investors suing in the US courts over losses they claimed were caused following the collapse of Bernard Madoff’s investment companies have got the go-ahead of the High Court to have an Irish bank employee give evidence in their action.

A group of investors who have brought proceedings in the US courts over losses they claimed were caused following the collapse of Bernard Madoff's investment companies have obtained permission of the High Court to have an Irish bank employee give evidence in their action.

Spain's Banco Santander saw its profit plunge 98% in the fourth quarter after the bank took a €1.8bn charge to protect its Spanish property portfolio, and set aside cash to cover bad loans.

THE cost of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Spain next week is coming under fire from lay groups — and even some priests — at a time when people are suffering from painful budget cuts.

SPANISH and Italian banks may have to curtail lending, threatening the European economy, as funding markets freeze amid the region’s sovereign debt crisis.

ALLIED Irish Banks, the country’s second-largest bank by assets, has a market value bigger than UBS and Barclays, even after its third bailout by the Government.

Banking giant Santander UK today said it had returned all its call centres in India to the UK following complaints from customers.

BANK employees in Northern Ireland are being put on alert after several bomb attacks in recent months by dissident Irish nationalists.

Spain’s most prestigious banker and 11 of his relatives are being investigated over possible income tax fraud.

Allied Irish Bank was effectively nationalised today after the Government got the green light to pump in another €3.7bn of taxpayers’ money.

AIB last night announced that it was disposing of its 22% or €1.6 billion shareholding in US bank M&T.

AIB is reportedly moving closer to concluding its second major overseas asset disposal, by off-loading its 23% stake in US bank M&T.

JUST when the Catholic Church didn’t need another scandal, Italian authorities have seized €23 million from a Vatican bank account and begun investigating top officials of the Vatican bank in connection with a money laundering probe.

AIB, which is seeking to raise as much €3 billion in a share sale in the fourth quarter, has hired UBS to help advise on the process, it has been reported.

THE Polish government has seemingly drawn a line under its failed attempt to persuade AIB to sell its stake in Bank Zachodni to a domestic player.