It is rumoured that the RBS could be ready to sell its stake in Tesco Finance, with a move expected within a few days.
Tesco Finance has RBS holding a 50 percent share of the business, which could be worth up to GBP950 million. This money would come in very handy for RBS, which has had a torrid time recently with the credit crunch denting its finances. This is just one of several sales that RBS appear to moving ahead with in their quest for GBP4 billion of extra money.
The management at Tesco Finance are unperturbed by the suggested sale since they have a very strong business position that would be attractive to any investor.
Citigroup, the huge financial organisation of which Citibank is a part, is being urged to break up by some union representatives.
A union president has written to the Citibank Chairman asking him to give some value back to the shareholders by breaking up the business into smaller parts. He does not want to see the supermarket approach of offering everything continued, preferring a more targeted approach.
Shares in Citigroup have fallen by over 60 percent in the last 12 months and it is felt that were the businesses to be split up so they stand on their own merits share prices in most of them would rise. Citibank is a part of all this and although there is no expectation of a shake up taking place it will still be interesting to see where the share price goes on the back of the discussion.
The first six months of the year has seen Northern Rock record a loss of GBP585 million, primarily through their customers being unable to meet the payments on their mortgage.
The figures provided by Northern Rock show 1.18 percent of customers are regularly missing mortgage payments, which is an increase of 300 percent compared with 12 months ago. The upshot of missed payments is arrears, with the number of people now in this state also up by around 300 percent.
The worry for everyone looking at the housing situation, not just Northern Rock, is that these arrears can turn into repossessions, especially where negative equity becomes a problem, such a situation will be affecting many homeowners who bought their house within the last two years.