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“It’s unacceptable. The British government has a seriously large shareholding in RBS and will let its views be known.”
David Cameron, prime minister of the UK, on the news that RBS will be giving out $311m in bonuses in 2011.


The following are notes from our Monday morning meeting.


Former ECB vice-president Lucas Papademos, who was the central bank governor when Greece adopted the euro in 2001, became prime minister, vowing to keep the single currency.

UBS is expected to confirm former EMEA head Sergio Ermotti as its CEO on Thursday.

South Africa’s Absa Bank and First National Bank became the first to roll out biometric systems to verify customers’ fingerprints in branches.

Bank Leumi, Israel’s largest, raised $538m in deferred capital notes to bolster regulatory capital, more than initially planned; Bank Hapoalim may also raise $420m.

Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group bought RBS’ infrastructure advisory business in Australia for an undisclosed sum.

China’s Bank of Communications opened its first UK subsidiary, with a San Francisco branch and representative office in Sydney set to follow.

Singapore’s post office will partner with DBS to offer basic bank services in its 140 outlets, in addition to DBS's 80 branches.

NPLs at Indian banks rose 33% in Q2. State Bank of India saw rates rise 46%, raising provisioning 35% as chairman Pratip Chaudhuri says he expects bad loan levels to keep rising.

ANZ CEO Mike Smith is taking a 9% pay cut to $5m as annual profit fell 7% to $10.04b, although he is still the region’s highest-paid bank head.