Commercial Finance Specialists

The Financial Services Authority is preparing a report on corporate lending failings by the UK's banks.

A review of commercial mortgages and other lending by failing UK banks is underway by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

The commercial lending decisions and other actions taken by the UK's struggling banks will be examined by the City regulator in a supervisory review.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and HBOS will both come under scrutiny during the probe, which was started last April.

The investigation is expected to reveal actions and controls implemented for capital raising and the findings could be published soon.

External groups including Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers are among the external groups that have been assisting in the investigation.

Part of the review is focused on capital raising disclosures made by RBS and HBOS in 2008 and the associated controls and actions.

Internal breakdowns in communications are also thought to have contributed to risky lending by the banks.

Both RBS and HBOS were bailed out by the Treasury and were subject to billions in special liquidity support in an attempt by the government to protect them from collapse.