The mighty are starting to fall.

Royal Bank of Scotland is being downgraded, one step above default.

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s Tier 1 notes fell after Standard & Poor’s cut their ratings to one step above default on the lender’s “distressed” exchange of subordinated securities.

snip....S&P cut the ratings on RBS’s “may pay” Tier 1 hybrid securities to C, one step above default, from CC. The exchange will result in RBS deferring paying coupons on the Tier 1 securities for two years, according to New York-based S&P.

Banks issue Tier 1 and Tier 2 debt to raise capital demanded by regulators to protect depositors.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-26/rbs-notes-fall-most-in-five-months-on-swap-downgrade-update1-.html

and this:

LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) - A hedge fund trader among seven men arrested as part of Britain's biggest swoop on an insider trading ring said he was innocent on Friday as the probe shone an unwelcome light on several banks and listed companies.

Britain's Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) made the arrests this week on suspicion of involvement in a long-running and sophisticated insider-dealing r

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE62O1ZG20100326

i can't stand their commercials.

All I can think of is Monty Python. :rofl:

March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Julian Rifat, the Moore Capital Management LLC employee arrested as part of the U.K.’s largest crackdown on insider trading, is a former track star who made a Morgan Stanley list of high-powered equity investors.

Rifat was an execution trader in the London office of Moore, a New York-based firm that oversees $15 billion. His job was to get the best prices for portfolio managers without telegraphing the firm’s buying and selling to rivals. He was taken into custody on his 41st birthday.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-24/moore-s-rifat-made-investors-that-matter-list-before-arrest.html

Why didn't this guy get a bonus? Must've been in the wrong country... not run by crooks