LONDON: lawmakers have demanded that Britain’s finance ministry should examine the advantages and disadvantages of breaking up state-backed lenders RBS and Lloyds.
Reuters reports that the cross-party Treasury Select Committee, responsible for examining the finance ministry’s policies, recommended it deliver a cost-benefit analysis in time for the government’s spending review in June.
The report should also look at the impact on competition, it said.
Britain pumped £66bn ($101bn) into the banks to keep them afloat during the 2008 financial crisis, taking an 81 per cent stake in RBS and a 39 per cent shareholding in Lloyds.
The government does not have to adopt recommendations made by the committee but it would be considered unusual for it not to do so.
Officials at Britain’s finance ministry could not be reached for comment. RBS and Lloyds declined to comment.