Shares in British banks were up on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after a U.S. judge ruled in favour of Barclays bank in a case looking at the sale of Lehman Brothers assets in 2008.

Just days after Lehman filed for bankruptcy in 2008 the doomed bank sold its investment banking and brokerage operations for $1.85 billion to Barclays.

Lehman has since claimed that the deal was far too favourable to Barclays. However Bankruptcy Judge James Peck said that while the sale process was "imperfect" it was "adequate under the exceptional circumstances of Lehman Week".

Judge Peck added that the sale to Barclays prevented a greater disaster than the already catastrophic collapse of Lehman Brothers and also helped save thousands of jobs in the financial services industry.

The news appeared to help banking shares.

By 09:45 shares in RBS were up 0.67 per cent to 48.04 pence per share, Barclays shares increased 0.67 per cent to 324.00 pence per share and HSBC shares rose 0.30 per cent to 701.10 pence per share. Lloyds Banking Group shares were flat at 66.29 pence per share.

Overall the FTSE 100 was down 0.72 per cent to 5,953.63.

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