Relief charities have praised the finance industry for its generosity as appeals to help victims of the Nepal earthquake look set to raise millions of pounds from the City of London.

The British Red Cross said it had already received "significant donations" from Barclays, Deloitte, HSBC and Standard Chartered. HSBC gave $250,000 to the Red Cross appeal, plus a further $250,000 to help children displaced by the disaster, and Standard Chartered has donated $200,000.