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Lloyds Banking Group is to make a special payment of £35,000 to 191 fraud victims in an attempt to rebuild trust after an independent review of its compensation scheme concluded it was not “fair and reasonable” and needed to be reassessed.

That's according to the Financial Times which cites an email to the victims of the HBOS Reading fraud in which Jo Harris, head of small business banking, said Lloyds had taken the step to assuage concerns those affected had expressed to chief executive Antonio Horta Osorio about “the additional delay” resulting from the new review.

This is after an independent report, published earlier this month, found a scheme to compensate customers caught up in the multi-million pound scam at the HBOS branch had "serious shortcomings".

Sir Ross Cranston, a law professor at the London School of Economics, said owners Lloyds must re-assess customers' claims.

A former HBOS banker and five other financiers were jailed in February 2017 for offences at its Reading branch.

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Halifax, part of Lloyds Banking Group, reckons house prices will grow between 1% and 3% in 2020. The UK's biggest mortgage lender says that in 2019 the housing market performed in line with expectations, at the lower end of its forecast for 2% to 4% growth.

Russell Galley, managing director of Halifax, said: "The housing market in 2019 followed a similar path to recent years. Modest price growth was supported by falling mortgage rates and a low volume of houses for sale, factors which can in part be attributed to elevated uncertainty. This helped to underpin a degree of resilience in the market.

"Prospects for 2020 look a bit brighter, with uncertainty in the economy falling back somewhat, transactions volumes anticipated to pick up and further price increases made possible by growth in households’ real incomes. However the shortage of homes for sale and low levels of housebuilding will continue to support high prices, while the challenges faced by prospective buyers in raising the necessary deposits may continue to constrain demand".

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Royal Bank of Scotland has announced changes to its management team at its NatWest Markets arm, where Chris Marks and Richard Place have stepped down as chief executive and chief financial officer respectively.

An internal and external search is underway for successors with permanent appointments to be announced in due course, RBS said, with temporary appointments to fill the vacancies until then.

Alison Rose, chief executive of RBS, said: "The directors of RBS and NatWest Markets and I would like to thank Chris and Richard for their commitment and dedication to this bank, its staff and its clients. They have set the foundations for the continuing transformation and simplification across NatWest Markets as RBS has been re-shaped to focus on serving its customers in the UK and Ireland, whilst also managing complex organisational changes around ring-fencing and Brexit.

"NatWest Markets plays a crucial role within RBS, allowing us to provide our customers with the products and services they need to succeed."