On January 19th Royal Bank of Scotland's shares collapsed as the British government raised its stake and the battered lender said it could report Britain's largest-ever corporate loss after an impairment charge on its takeover of ABN AMRO, a Dutch bank.

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The loss was mainly due to an impairment charge of 3.1bn Swiss francs that UBS is taking to cover the cost of the changes to its investment bank.

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That loss is not counting a further goodwill impairment charge of an as-yet to be determined amount.

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On Wednesday the New York-based media conglomerate said an impairment charge for its cable, publishing and AOL units would result in a fourth-quarter operating loss.

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