In London, shares in Royal Bank of Scotland, the UK's second biggest bank, plunged 67 per cent, to their lowest for a quarter of a century, after it announced that losses for 2008 were expected to be ￡28bn ($40.5bn) and that it would swap preference shares for equity, increasing the government's stake to 70 per cent.
The news sent RBS shares plummeting to 11.6p giving it a market capitalisation of just ￡4.5bn. Eighteen months ago, the company was worth ￡78bn.
Stephen Hester, chief executive, said full nationalisation had been discussed with the government but stressed it was “something we all wished to avoid”.
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