Start Lending!

John McFall, the chairman of the Treasury select committee issued a blunt warning to banks last night.

"The banks appear reluctant to launch their recapitalisation lifeboat and start lending again to households and businesses.

They are navel gazing and looking warily at each other instead of concentrating on their customers, many of whom are still in peril on a sea of uncertainty."

To add to the pressure on the banks, heads of the main high street banks have been summoned to the Treasury today for a final warning.

The cosy world of banking has been turned upside down, yet the bankers don't seem to have grasped that yet.