State-controlled banks are undergoing a summer clean-out. Faced with pressure from the European Union to jettison assets for accepting government cash - and keen to clear up unwieldy balance sheets - Royal Bank of Scotland has been ramping up its divestures, while Lloyds Banking Group is now taking an important step in tidying up its (rather untidy) commercial property loan book.

As Financial News reported last month, RBS has found a buyer for its Indian operations, KBC has offloaded its global convertible bonds and Asian equities businesses while Lloyds has sold the old HBOS private equity business http://bit.ly/dcE6Hk.