It’s bottom-drawer rummage time again. Remember those bank shares that made you wince every time you checked them? The ones with 90 per cent falls that dragged down your investment performance, that paid no dividends and were useful only to mitigate capital gains tax liability?

STANDARD Life has appointed international recruitment specialist JCA Group to search for a chief financial officer following the departure last month of Jackie Hunt.

Shares in state-backed Lloyds Banking Group yesterday climbed above the UK government’s break-even price, raising the prospect of a taxpayer share sale either later this year or in 2014.

Concerns over the future of the Co-operative Group’s banking business sparked by the collapse of a deal to take over 600-plus Lloyds branches will cast a long shadow over the mutual’s AGM today.

INSURANCE giant Prudential defused a shareholder rebellion on pay at yesterday’s annual general meeting, but directors had to suffer being accused of corporate greed from the floor.

SHARES in Lloyds Banking Group last night closed close to the taxpayers’ break even point after its chief executive confirmed the bank would be profitable in 2013.

ADAM & Co, the private bank owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, saw profits more than double last year as it reaped the benefits of reduced costs and lower writedowns.

David Cameron has said he is “open to all ideas” on returning the Royal Bank of Scotland to private ownership.

STANDARD Life Investments (SLI) led the protests at fellow institutional investor RSA’s annual general meeting (AGM) yesterday as shareholders rebelled over the dividend being slashed by a third and concerns regarding the auditor’s appointment.

THE Co-operative Group is mulling the sale of a 
£2 billion loan portfolio after a report by a credit agency raised fears its banking arm was in need of a government bail out.

SIR Philip Hampton, chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, signalled further job cuts and branch closures as he addressed shareholders at its annual meeting in Edinburgh yesterday.

HSBC has abandoned one of its key performance targets amid a renewed cost-cutting drive that could see it shed as many as 14,000 additional jobs around the world.

SIR Philip Hampton, chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, signalled further job cuts and branch closures as he addressed shareholders at its annual meeting in Edinburgh yesterday.

SIR Philip Hampton, the chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, refused to rule out whether the lender had any further “skeletons in the closet” as the board faced another grilling from shareholders at its annual general meeting yesterday.

EUROPEAN finance ministers have failed to agree on plans to crack down on cross-border tax evasion, despite Chancellor George Osborne’s hopes that his colleagues would “take the fight” to tax dodgers.

STANDARD Life chairman Gerry Grimstone was forced into a robust defence of the company’s pay policy yesterday as shareholders expressed concern at poor returns on some policies.

ROYAL London, the life insurance and pensions company that owns Scottish Life, has posted a 22 per cent rise in new business for the opening three months of the year.

THE damage caused to banking’s image by the financial crisis is making it more difficult to recruit graduates into the industry, the head of one of Britain’s biggest banks has warned.

PARTNERSHIP Assurance Group, the private-equity backed life insurer, yesterday announced plans to list on the London Stock Exchange in a further sign that the market for flotations is rebounding.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is facing shareholder discontent at its annual meeting tomorrow over £607 million of staff bonus handouts during a year when it lost £5.2 billion.