These are grim times for the financial services sector, without much sign of light at the end of the tunnel.
The harsh reality is reflected in this month's crop of mostly negative stories.
We start with the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which, according to a report in Computerworld UK, is taking drastic measures to cut costs.
In an email leaked to the BBC, chief financial officer (CFO) Chris Kyle announced 11 money-saving initiatives, including a freeze on hardware and software spend for the remainder of the year.
"RBS employees will not get any approvals for new telecoms equipment, such as BlackBerrys and headsets, and the bank wants to cut costs of market data by putting a ban on 'new premium terminal spend' for the rest of the year and cancelling non-essential information services," the report says.
It adds that contractors and technical specialists will be required to have two weeks off at Christmas and staff entertainment budgets "have been pulled for the rest of the year".
CFO World reports that both RBS and Lloyds have had their credit ratings cut by the global ratings agency Fitch.
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The decision, which followed a similar announcement by Moody's, was based on concerns that "the part-nationalised banks have become less likely to receive a further bailout in the event of a crisis."
Fitch also placed Barclays Bank on "rating watch negative," a signal that it too might be downgraded.
The Financial Times reports on the new capital regime for banks.
Under the scheme agreed by EU leaders, 70 European banks will need more than €100bn in capital by the end of next June to make them safe.
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