In particular, they suffer from a banking system skewed in favour of state-owned enterprises, which receive more than four-fifths of all bank loans.

ECONOMIST: China��s private surprise

On some estimates, these already amount to 40-50% of all bank loans.

ECONOMIST: China's economy

Nearly 60% of all Romanian bank loans in 1997 were non-performing, says the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

ECONOMIST: Romania

So what we've said is let's make all these direct loans, as opposed to having bank intermediaries or -- and not just banks -- financial services organizations.

WHITEHOUSE: Online Town Hall

One part ("the bad bank") will assume all the residential and commercial real-estate loans and securitized mortgages as assets, and all the long-term debt as liabilities.

WSJ: Banks Need Fewer Carrots and More Sticks

However, these branches deliver just 9% of Lloyds' profit - largely because what's being sold is in effect a low-margin mortgage bank, without the benefit of all the other higher margin loans and products that Lloyds also sells its millions of customers.

BBC: Lloyds sale of Verde hits huge obstacle