Hhhhh

U.K. Banks have been Hit just as Hard as U.S. Banks

U.S. banks, such as Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), and Lehman Brothers (LEH) have suffered millions in losses due to the 2008 Financial Crisis. U.K. banks have not been immune to the U.S. crisis, as the U.K. government has invested €781.2 billion, compared to ~ €9.1 trillion ($12.8 trillion) invested by the U.S. government.[13] U.K. banks have U.S. commercial real estate exposures -- in the form of loans and other debt mortgage-backed securities (MBS).[14] So hardships in the U.S. housing market and banks suffering losses due to subprime lending in turn causes foreign banks to suffer losses.

Some analysts suspect that the U.K. is doomed for a bigger recession than the U.S. in 2010.[5] U.K. GDP has decreased 33% since the end of 2007[5] and unemployment reached 1.54 million in May.[15] The Confederation of British Industry predicts that U.K. unemployment will peak at 3.03 million (9.6% of U.K. population) by Q310[15] On top of all that, the U.K. housing market has been miserable -- as mortgages to home buyers dropped 49% since the beginning of 2008[5] and housing prices have fallen 20% in that time span.[16] In efforts to reduce the downfall, the U.K. government is on pace to lend over £1 trillion to bailout banks in 2009, which it hopes will boost lending, but may just cause a bigger debt bubble.[5] Investors might want to look further than "across the pond" for economic optimism.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (LON: RBS), one of the three U.K. banks to be nationalized, is a holding company that lost €23 billion in 2008 due to the financial crisis.[1] The bank provides lending and commercial banking, and competes with other U.K. banks such as Lloyds Banking Group (LYG) (another nationalized U.K. bank), and Barclays (BCS), as well as a handful of U.S. banks such as JP Morgan Chase (JPM).

From 2007 to 2008, RBS went from being the most capitalized bank in the U.K. to having its share price drop...