Northern Rock 'good bank' makes £232m loss - papers

Northern Rock PLC has announced underlying losses of £232.4m for 2010 in its first annual results since being split from its toxic loans.

The company said it is making progress, with income up and costs reduced during the second half of its financial year, although executive chairman Ron Sandler added trading remained "difficult" in the current environment, the BBC reports.

He said Northern Rock was still in talks with the government on returning the company to private ownership.

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RBS directors share £28m bonus awards

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has rewarded its top nine directors with bonus packages for 2010 potentially worth a combined £28m, with chief executive Stephen Hester set to receive up to £6.5m.

The bosses will share £9.6m in bonuses and could earn a maximum £18.4m under the long-term incentive plan (LTIP) if they hit performance targets over three years, the Telegraph reports.

Hester's £4.5m LTIP comes on top of his £2m bonus and £1.2m salary, both of which have already been announced, taking his whole package to £7.7m.

An RBS spokesman says: "These awards follow exhaustive consultation with our shareholders and we believe they appropriately balance demonstrating restraint while remaining fully supportive of our leadership through the RBS turnaround plan."

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Lloyds ousts senior executives

The new boss of Lloyds Banking Group has announced a boardroom shakeup which sees two of his most senior executives step down.

Chief executive António Horta-Osório has confirmed the departures of Helen Weir, head of the retail division, and Archie Kane, who runs the insurance arm, the Guardian reports.

Since joining from Santander, Horta-Osório has begun a strategic review and has concluded the products sold under the Halifax brand should be managed separately to those sold by Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB.

He is due to report the outcome of the review in June and it is thought his new operating structure will involve the centralisation of Lloyds' finance and risk functions, similar to the structure at Santander UK.

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