Bloomberg reports that Royal Bank of Scotland's London HQ building in Bishopsgate was picketed by protesters Tuesday, who were angry at the bank's investment in fossil fuels.

Almost a dozen protesters are said to have formed a human chain outside 250 Bishopsgate (the old ABN AMRO building), barring entry and exit.

In the meantime, The New Daily News reports that new AIG CEO Robert Benmosche has put his foot in it already. He told his employees (in what he thought was a closed meeting) that New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was 'unbelievably wrong' targeting the firm's employees over bonuses. He said: 'He (Cuomo) doesn't deserve to be in government, and he surely shouldn't be the attorney general of New York. What he did is criminal. You don't create lynch mobs to go out to people's homes and do the things he did'.

After being told it's not that clever dishing Cuomo, Benmosche apologized, telling Reuters: 'You can characterize me as a goon, or you can characterize me as somebody who is attempting to deal with a complex issue of a very demoralized employee force, and (I) said those things to them in confidence, to reassure them that they no longer have to be afraid that they are going to be attacked again'. 

And The New York Times DealBook column reports that Bernie Madoff's Montauk beach house has been put up for sale by federal marshals. The four bedroom, three bathroom 1.2 acre plot (complete with swimming pool) is up for $8.75m.

The column also reports that Allen Stanford is back in jail, after being discharged from hospital. Doctors ran some tests on an aneurysm in his leg, and decided that it was not life-threatening.

The Financial Times reports that HSBC's Geneva-based private bank has seen clients withdraw $4bn from its hedge fund portfolio in the first-half of the year. The funds currently have around $22.27bn under management.

And Bloomberg reports that Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf has confirmed that his bank will be repaying its TARP support 'shortly', and will not need to raise more equity to do so.

Finally, the BBC reports that London's Mayor, Boris Johnson, is fighting EU proposals over hedge fund regulation, which he describes as a 'blatant attack' on the City's role as a leading financial center. Johnson told the BBC: 'It's open to people to construe it as a naked attempt by Paris and Berlin to attack the competitiveness of The City of Londson'.

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