British chancellor Alistair Darling said today that banks were best left in the private sector, in an effort to cool speculation that LLoyds Banking Group could be nationalised.
Part-nationalised Lloyds said on Friday its HBOS unit made a pretax loss of £8.5 billion last year due to a bigger-than-expected rise in bad loans, wiping a third off its value and raising fears more state help would be needed.
Asked whether the government was getting ready to step in on the sidelines of a meeting of Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers in Rome, Darling said: "I have made it very clear banks are best run in the commercial sector, privately owned."
The Treasury said there were no meetings planned between Mr Darling and senior bankers this weekend.
Reuters