Bank shares tumble after call for windfall tax on lenders in the budget

UK bank shares tumbled yesterday, cutting the combined stock market value of some of the biggest companies in the sector by more than £6bn, as fresh calls for a windfall tax on large lenders in the autumn budget spooked investors.

- Kalyeena Makortoff

Calls for a tax grab, in a paper written by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank, took a toll on some of the UK's biggest high street banks. NatWest was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 yesterday, down nearly 5%, while shares in Lloyds Banking Group fell more than 3% and Barclays was down 2%. HSBC shares fell nearly 1%.

The falls cut the market value of the banks by a total of about £6.4bn.