Shares in British banks were broadly down on the FTSE 100 in morning trading.

Yesterday the minutes of the Bank of England's most recent meeting on interest rates revealed that the Monetary Policy Committee voted 8-1 in favour of keeping interest rates at the historic low of 0.5 per cent.

In addition the MPC indicated it was willing to consider more action to stimulate the economy, despite inflation remaining persistently above three per cent and well above its official two per cent target.

Andrew Sentance is the only dissenter, arguing that the recovery would be able to handle a rise in interest rates.

This morning banking shares were broadly down, following losses on the FTSE 100 yesterday.

By 09:40 shares in Lloyds Banking Group were down 1.03 per cent to 75.07 pence per share, Barclays shares dropped 0.05 per cent to 306.55 pence per share and HSBC shares declined 0.03 per cent to 663.80 pence per share.

RBS shares however rose 0.59 per cent to 47.78 pence per share.

Overall the FTSE 100 was down 0.11 per cent to 5,545.92.

Barclays HSBC FTSE