Are the UK banks going to need more state help?

Barclays is one of the banks, which has turned down the offer of help from the UK government. The British bank has raised money from Gulf investors for example. Independence means that it can exploit international ambitions. This compares with the Royal Bank of Scotland, which looks likely to dispose of quite a few foreign assets.
Barclays has attracted brickbats for ignoring pre-emption rights but has argued that conventional rights issues did not work well with HBOS and Bradford and Bingley. These latter banks were hit by the long delay between announcing the capital raising operation and actually getting the money. The new shares were also issued at a discount, which hit the existing stock price.
Let's hope Barclays is not hit by toxic debt or by increasing loan losses.
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UK bank stocks can go up and they can go down!!

UK stocks can go up and they can go down as shareholders of Barclays can testify
with their recent bumpy ride. A mate of mine bought them at six
something and now the bank stock is five something after reaching four
something and he is not a happy bunny.

British bank stocks have been one of the pillars of UK income funds, both unit
trusts and investment trusts. The banks were used to provide the income but this
strategy has truly unstuck with the collapse of Northern Rock. I am no expert in shares but I think the advice of being able to lose your investment, if it came to it, is a sound one.

I suppose shareholders in Royal Bank of Scotland were hoping for a more
robust performance than they got recently. What as Fred the Shred Goodwin got to
to say to his institutional investors?

(Now that we are in January 2009 we know how it has panned out for Fred the Shred.
In addition, investors can only dream of £5 for Barclays.)