UK banks can withstand a fresh financial crisis - Moody's

Credit ratings agency Moody's has upgraded its outlook for British banks from negative to stable, saying they are strong enough to withstand another financial crisis.

In a statement accompanying the upgrade, the ratings agency said: "We believe that UK banks are sufficiently well capitalised to absorb expected losses from both our central and adverse stress scenarios." The agency said regulatory scrutiny of UK lenders have made them far stronger than their European peers, adding it expects to see a surge in profits from here. The upgrade follows a move by the International Monetary Fund which increased its growth forecast for the UK this year from 0.6% to 0.9%, which bucked a wider trend of downgrades. Moody's said improving economic growth will...