Lloyds

The Treasury has further sold down its stake in Lloyds Banking Group, and has committed to a retail share sale within the next 12 months as the bank's share price continues to recover.

The FTSE 100 has risen almost 1% this morning to retake the 7,000 level, as all sectors except materials enjoy gains.

Lloyds Banking Group has boosted the FTSE 100 this morning but politically-sensitive sectors have begun to feel the bite of election season.

David Cameron plans to offer up to £4bn worth of Lloyds shares to retail investors if the Conservatives win the general election.

Newcastle Building Society chief executive Jim Willens has been appointed chairman of Brown Shipley.

Aberdeen Asset Management has made a £38.3m top-up payment to Lloyds Banking Group for Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP), which it acquired last year.

Lloyds Banking Group is finally beginning to look attractive again for income managers as it restarts dividend payments for the first time since the crisis.

Lloyds Banking Group is to start paying dividends again for the first time in six years, set to be 0.75p per share for 2014.

Old Mutual Global Investors income manager Stephen Message is running one of the largest overweights to financials in his sector, in the expectation UK banks are set to return cash to shareholders.

An IFA and the directors of banking giants Goldman Sachs and Lloyds will head up the panels that raise the industry's voice on policymaking to the ear of the regulator.