Banking shake-up in numbers

Bank branches will be sold off to appease competition concerns

A major shake-up in the UK banking industry will see the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group sell off hundreds of branches.

The sales have been demanded by the European Commission to safeguard competition concerns.

"I believe what we have here is a better deal for the taxpayer," Chancellor Alistair Darling told the BBC.

So what are the specific changes and how will they affect each bank?

• The UK taxpayers' stake in RBS will rise to 84% of the bank, up from 74%
• RBS will sell 318 branches - 14% of its retail network - and so lose 2% of its UK market share
• This includes the RBS network in England and Wales, the NatWest brand in Scotland, RBS Insurance and the card payment business, Global Merchant Services
• It will join the Government Asset Protection Scheme (GAPS), when the government insures some of the expected £282bn of future losses on past investments
• It will pay the UK government £700m a year to be in the GAPS scheme, and £2.5bn to exit the scheme if and when that happens
• RBS and Lloyds have agreed to increase business and mortgage lending by a total of £39bn
• No cash bonuses to staff earning more than £39,000 will be paid for their performance in 2009, but this could be deferred and paid in the form of shares.

• The UK taxpayers' stake in the Lloyds Banking Group stands at 43.5%

• It will dispose of more than 600 branches over the next four years, 4.6% of the total market share of UK current accounts

• This includes the TSB brand in England, Wales and Scotland, mortgage arm Cheltenham & Gloucester, and the Intelligent Finance online business
• The sections being sold account for £30bn of customer deposits and £70bn of lending, which generated income of £1.4bn in the year to December 2008
• Instead of joining GAPS it will raise £21bn from a £13.5bn rights issue and a £7.5bn debt swap
• As a result it will pay the government £2.5bn for "implicit protection" provided by the government since it first offered to insure Lloyds' troubled assets in February.
• Lloyds and RBS have agreed to increase business and mortgage lending by a total of £39bn
• No cash bonuses to staff earning more than £39,000 will be paid for their performance in 2009, but this could be deferred and paid in the form of shares.

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