George Osborne is said to have put forth some plans for a bank levy, intended to raise as much as £2.5bn a year, last week. Also Vince Cable, the Business Secretary reportedly intimidated about the reintroduction of a bonus tax.

The cuts in public spending, hence add to the reasons, to call for the UK banks to help endure the tax burden. Mr. Bob Diamond is due to take over from John Varley as Chief Executive of Barclays.

He is said to have launched a thinly-veiled attack on political rhetoric regarding banks. Since the banks were lending, he said that it was high time, for an assessment to be carried out on the role played by the banks.

Mr. Diamond further said that lending was down by just 6pc since 2008 and the business lending was down by just 3pc. Though some political parties had claimed that the banks were not lending anymore, he asserted that the slow rate of lending was very much in accordance with the expected drop in demand.

He further said that the £30bn reduction in net lending was as a result of the slit which had been created by British banks, as they had now started to lend half a trillion pounds to businesses.