Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group have spent significant amounts of taxpayers' money on attempts to influence government ministers in recent times, it has been reported.
According to the Independent, the state-owned financiers have recruited eight separate lobbying and public affairs firms to help them with this objective at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds annually.
RBS - which is 83 per cent owned by the administration - was found to be paying six organisations as well as a group of internal corporate lobbyists, even though it is expected to cut between 3,000 and 4,000 jobs this week.
Meanwhile, Lloyds benefitted from the expertise of two specialist companies and this has sparked concerns the banks may be using taxpayers' cash to lessen the impact of proposed reforms in the sector.
Tamasin Cabe of the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency told the news source these figures are "offensive".
By Asim Shah
