Scotland's Daily Record reports that executives at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) continue to lose the 'trappings of power' enjoyed by their predecessors.

The executive wing at the firm's global HQ in Edinburgh (known as Sir Fred's Folly) has apparently been turned into an open plan office, and senior directors there are said to have lost their fancy subsidized sandwiches. The newspaper quotes an RBS insider who said: 'With all the publicity about Fred Goodwin's pension, and thousands of staff about to lose their jobs, the new management felt they had to do something to signal a change of culture'.

Also capturing the austerity of the moment, was Citi Tuesday. As The New York Times reports, gone from the company's annual meeting were the 'arc cookies in the shape of the corporate logo', and the coffee. Shareholders spent 6 hours questioning Citi executives on an empty stomach.

In the meantime, Dow Jones Newswires reports that Credit Suisse confirmed Tuesday that it is to offer an additional $42.4m to compensate investors who were sold so-called 'capital-protected products' from Lehman Brothers. Credit Suisse has already paid out $85m in this respect.

And Reuters reports that Morgan Stanley may acquire some US regional banks in order to build up its retail operations. CEO John Mack told Japan's Nikkei newspaper: 'Now that we are a bank holding company, deposits are important to us. We are looking for potential opportunities to buy a bank that has a presence in...the US'.

Bloomberg reports that both BNP Paribas and Societe Generale have said that they plan to reduce hiring back home in France. BNP will cut recruitment by 36%, while SocGen will make a 27% reduction.

Reuters reports that UBS is mulling over the sale of all or part of hedge fund business Alternative & Quantitative Investments to management. The unit has $39bn in assets under management, and employs 350 employees. Bloomberg also reports that the Swiss bank has been ordered to transfer the assets it holds for LuxAlpha Sicav-American (a fund that invested in Bernie Madoff) to a bank chosen by the fund's liquidator. Failure to do so may result in a daily fine of $1.3m. UBS is worried that the money might also be claimed by Madoff's liquidator, and that it might find itself in the middle of a spat.

Finally, The New York Times reports that Texas financier Allen Stanford has once again insisted that he is no crook. Despite the US government claiming that up to $6bn of investor monies is unaccounted for, Allen told the newspaper: 'I don't think there is any money missing. There never was a Ponzi scheme, and there never was an attempt to defraud anybody'.

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