ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND

Following the revelation last week that British banking giant Barclays was engaging in massive fraud meant to distort the Libor, the interest rate underpinning hundreds of trillions of dollars in credit transactions, politicians and regulators the world over are taking a sober look at the system. What they find may prove to be shocking.

The Bank of England (BoE) is cracking down on large financial institutions to prevent them from cheating businesses and consumers worldwide -- a practice that has put a $360 trillion global financial market at serious risk for several years.

Investors in Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) (London: BARC) lost over £4 billion Thursday as the British bank lost one-sixth of its market capitalization a day after international regulators announced the bank would have to pay hundreds of millions as a fine for an audacious price-fixing fraud some of its traders were found to have engaged in.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Nokia Corp, Navistar International, Sohu.com, Facebook, JPMorgan Chase, Alcoa and GlaxoSmithKline are among the companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Friday.

European markets rose Friday amid expectation that central banks around the world would coordinate to announce stimulus measures to rejuvenate the global economic growth.

Among the companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Thursday are: Lincoln National Corp, SINA Corp, Las Vegas Sands, Baidu.com, Bank of America, Royal Bank of Scotland, Morgan Stanley and Nokia Corp.

The part-nationalized bank is expected to make the announcement on Friday during its first-quarter update, where it will also announce pre-tax losses of under £50 million, down from losses of £106 million this time last year.

Mergers and acquisitions are on the upstream as low interest rates, rising business and consumer confidence plus depressed prices for some assets have companies seeking buys that will allow them to expand or cut costs through synergy.

Private equity group Terra Firma Capital Partners said Monday it would buy Four Seasons Health Care, the UK's largest independent elderly healthcare provider, for 825 million pounds ($1.34 billion) to take advantage of the growing demand.

European banks could be forced to shrink their balance sheets by as much as $3.8 trillion through 2013, or almost 7 percent of total assets, with a quarter of the deleveraging likely to come from cuts in lending and the remainder from sales of securities and noncore assets, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday.

British taxpayers may take billion-pound hit if plans go ahead to sell off up to a third of stake in RBS to sovereign wealth investors in Abu Dhabi.

The British government has been in talks with Abu Dhabi's cash-rich sovereign wealth funds to sell a large portion of its 82 percent holding of RBS for months, according to a report.

Greg Smith resignation letter describing toxic atmosphere at investment bank undermines goodwill.

Customers of bankrupt U.S. brokerage MF Global are receiving bids from global banks for their claims, according to a published report.

Struggling British video games retailer Game (GMG.L), denied new titles by suppliers, has put itself up for sale and warned shareholders their equity in the firm could be worthless.

Vladimir Putin triumphed in Russia's presidential election on Sunday and, tears rolling down his cheeks, called his victory a turning point that had prevented the country falling into the hands of enemies.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a firmer open on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones futures and Nasdaq 100 futures rising 0.1-0.2 percent at 4:58 a.m. ET.

HSBC Holdings is expected to report the West's biggest banking profit for last year, fuelled by the East, while its rivals are struggling with faltering European and U.S. growth.

Lloyds, 40 per cent owned by the government after a state bailout during the 2008 financial crisis, reported on Friday an annual loss of 3.54 billion pounds, having made a profit of 281 million in 2010.

Lloyds will bear brunt of writedowns and restructuring costs, as it sells non-core businesses and cuts thousands of jobs.

The move is expected to increase anger that the bank is still paying large salaries while thousands, including more than 30,000 layoffs at the bank in the last three years, lose their jobs in a weakening global economy.