Lloyds said it was confident in its capital position and re-affirmed previous targets for its core tier 1 ratio. Antonio Horta-Osorio, the Lloyds chief executive, said: "Our strong capital position enables the group to actively support growth and lending in the UK ...

Nationwide Building Society, the U.K.'s largest customer-owned lender, said full-year pretax profit rose 3.4 percent as higher impairments in its property finance business offset growth at its consumer unit.

On Wednesday, the IMF presents its annual healthcheck on the UK and the international body is expected to suggest that deficit reduction should be slowed amid anaemic growth.

Lost tax revenue from money salted away offshore is costing governments more than $150bn (�99bn) a year, Oxfam has found - enough to eliminate extreme poverty across the globe twice over.

The pound fell to a four-week low against the euro before the Bank of England publishes the minutes of this month's monetary policy meeting.