Major British banks are expected to announce plans to recapitalize early on Monday, people familiar with the matter said, which could see the government take multibillion pound stakes in several lenders.

Banks could receive about 37 billion pounds ($97 billion) in government funds to boost their capital, according to one person familiar with the matter and other media reports.

Crisis talks among the banks, government and regulators continued late on Sunday to determine how much capital each needs from the 50 billion pounds offered by Britain last week.

An announcement is expected before the market opens on Monday, but details are still being fine-tuned, said the sources, who declined to be identified.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc could boost capital by 15 billion pounds, HBOS Plc could take in 10 billion, Barclays Plc could seek 7 billion and Lloyds TSB Group Plc about 5 billion, according to a source and several media reports.

Banks are expected to try to sell shares to existing investors, backed by the government, which would buy the shares not taken by investors.

That could result in the government becoming the biggest shareholder -- and even a majority investor -- in RBS and HBOS.

RBS chief executive Fred Goodwin is widely expected to resign as part of the fund-raising. Earlier this year RBS shareholders had said Goodwin would need to step down if the bank sought to raise more cash. Stephen Hester, chief executive for British Land Co Plc, is seen taking over after joining the RBS board just 11 days ago.

In addition to potentially taking ordinary shares, the government is expected to provide capital in return for preference shares, which could pay an annual dividend of about 10% but typically do not have voting rights.

Other European countries also prepared to step in to help ailing banks, and leaders met in Paris on Sunday to discuss options, racing to throw banks a lifeline before markets reopen.

Seats on boards
 
The government could take seats on the boards of banks, a government source said on Saturday.

Lloyds, RBS, HBOS and Barclays all declined to comment.

Lloyds is in the process of buying HBOS, and the fund-raising could see Lloyds renegotiate the terms of the deal, especially if the government ended up with a sizable stake.

HBOS rejected a report late on Sunday that the deal had collapsed, but declined comment on whether it would be tweaked.

``The deal remains in place and is on track,'' said Shane O'Riordain, general manager of group communications for HBOS.

British Finance Minister Alistair Darling, attending a G7 finance ministers' meeting in Washington, said on Saturday the government was to give more details early this week about its already announced 400 billion pound banking rescue plan.

The Sunday Times said the scale of the fund-raising could lead to trading at the London Stock Exchange being suspended to give the market time to digest the impact.

The LSE downplayed that prospect, and the World Federation of Exchanges, which represents the LSE and 55 other exchanges, said stock markets should remain open throughout the crisis.

Talks took place throughout the weekend among banks, the Treasury, the Financial Services Authority and the Bank of England. The scale of the cash required by each would depend on estimates of further losses from their exposure to subprime mortgages and other financial instruments, one source said.

Capital is the cushion a bank keeps to protect its depositors against losses. Many banks ran down their capital in recent years amid a benign economic backdrop, but they have been hit by big losses in the last year and now need to recapitalize in the face of an economic recession.

Britain is offering 50 billion pounds in capital and will guarantee interbank lending by 250 billion sterling to help unfreeze wholesale markets, and is extending a Bank of England program that swaps banks' risky assets for government debt to provide 200 billion pound of cash to the system.

The multibillion pound package was aimed at stabilizing banks and getting them lending again, but it failed to halt a collapse in share prices.
RBS shares fell over 60% last week, and it and HBOS have lost more than three-quarters of their value this year.

The broader European bank index has halved this year as fears that more banks will fail have been stoked by the deepening financial crisis and the prospect of recession.

Reuters