RBS to delay repossessions

Royal Bank of Scotland, which own NatWest and controls 7 per cent of the UK mortgage market, has said it will delay repossessions during the credit crunch. The bank has promised not to repossess the homes of customers who have fallen behind with their mortgage payments for at least six months.

Last week, it was announced that the Government now owns a majority in Royal Bank of Scotland after existing shareholders bought only at tiny proportion of the new issue. The Government paid about £15bn for its stake in the bank, and will also buy £5bn of preference shares.

The announcement of delayed repossessions will put pressure on HBOS, the country's biggest mortgage lender, to do something similary - HBOS has also received a large amount of public money.