Brown bails out the banks, again
Updated on 19 January 2009
The government is set to give billions of pounds to banks again. Is it a blank cheque or a credit rescue for businesses and home buyers?
The government insists it is not a bailout, but their latest multi billion package sees the tax payer take larger stakes in banks like the Royal Bank of Scotland which today revealed losses of £25bn.
Will their plan to insure all banks' bad assets, finally get them lending again?
Just three months after the government injected £37bn into the banking industry it is now making billions more money available to banks.
The purpose, according to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, is not to bailout the banking sector but to increase the amount of lending available to struggling families and businesses.
In an attempt to get the economy moving the government is offering banks an insurance scheme to protect them from so called "toxic assets" and to encourage them to restart lending to households.
But until the banks reveal the extent of their bad debts it is not yet known how much this will cost the taxpayer.
Bailout: the analysis
Gary Gibbon and Siobhan Kennedy analyse the government's plan to give billions of pounds to banks again and ask what does this package really mean?
