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Lloyds poised for new bailout
Another multi-billion pound injection of public cash into Lloyds is expected to be announced.
Talks between senior bank executives and the Treasury are thought to have agreed that the taxpayer will insure more than £250 billion of "toxic" assets.
In return, the Government is likely to up its stake in the company from 43% to 60%.
Lloyds Banking Group was the FTSE 100 Index's leading riser on Friday amid hopes that a deal was close to limit its potential losses.
The Treasury has already struck a similar agreement with Royal Bank of Scotland.
Lloyds has been forced to ask for further support because of the heavy losses run up by HBOS - which it took over to prevent its collapse.
RBS - which last week posted a UK record loss of £24.1 billion - has agreed a similar deal to place £325 billion of riskier assets such as commercial property loans and mortgage-backed securities into the Government scheme.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne said the Lloyds package amounted to another admission of failure by the Prime Minister.
"This massive second bailout is proof that Gordon Brown's first bailout failed, and the real test of it will be if credit starts flowing again in our economy," he said.
"It is also clear that the takeover of HBOS, which the Prime Minister helped orchestrate, is responsible for dragging Lloyds into majority public ownership
Another multi-billion pound injection of public cash into Lloyds is expected to be announced.
Talks between senior bank executives and the Treasury are thought to have agreed that the taxpayer will insure more than £250 billion of "toxic" assets.
In return, the Government is likely to up its stake in the company from 43% to 60%.
Lloyds Banking Group was the FTSE 100 Index's leading riser on Friday amid hopes that a deal was close to limit its potential losses.
The Treasury has already struck a similar agreement with Royal Bank of Scotland.
Lloyds has been forced to ask for further support because of the heavy losses run up by HBOS - which it took over to prevent its collapse.
RBS - which last week posted a UK record loss of £24.1 billion - has agreed a similar deal to place £325 billion of riskier assets such as commercial property loans and mortgage-backed securities into the Government scheme.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne said the Lloyds package amounted to another admission of failure by the Prime Minister.
"This massive second bailout is proof that Gordon Brown's first bailout failed, and the real test of it will be if credit starts flowing again in our economy," he said.
"It is also clear that the takeover of HBOS, which the Prime Minister helped orchestrate, is responsible for dragging Lloyds into majority public ownership
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