U.K. stats agency reclassifies Lloyds and RBS

Britain's Office for National Statistics on Thursday reclassified Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB as public corporations from Oct. 13, when the government announced it would recapitalize the companies. The agency said data from the two banking groups will be incorporated into data on public sector finances "as soon as is practicable, but it should be noted that they are large, complex organizations, and this may take some time." The U.K. government has pumped 17 billion pounds into Lloyds Banking Group and holds a roughly 43% stake in the company. The government has also pumped around 20 billion pounds into RBS and will hold a roughly 70% stake once preference shares are converted.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/UK-stats-agency-reclassifies-Lloyds/story.aspx?guid={01CBC05D-684B-493B-A6BA-4B69B8D6B1EC}&dist=hplatest

Yeeehaw, 70-100% of GDP added to PSNB!!!!

Makes for odd reading in today's PSNCR number (and the revision). It has confused me today.

Excuse my ignorance... what is PSNB and PSNCR?

Uk borrowing stats mate - were released today for jan (plus revision for Dec)

cheers

Here's some blurbage for ya:

UK PSNB (Public Sector Net Borrowing) came at a surplus of 3.3bn. This was vs expectations of a surplus of 7bn. There is always a lrg surplus in January due to the fact corporate tax receipts are larger at this time of yr so this is a pretty weak number. Tho an article in the FT this morning suggested it could be as weak as flat so this might have been even worse. PSNCR (Public Sector Net Cash Reserves) came in better than expected as ONS reclassified payments to RBS and Lloyds. Hence artificially poor data on the previous PSNCR series is offset by today's no. This volatility in PSNCR emphasizes why one should focus on PSNB, which was marginally worse than expd but less bad than feared after the FT story.