The bank could increase its provision by £125m. Collectively, UK high street banks face a bill of £8bn for misselling PPI. Both RBS and Lloyds took out the emergency loans at the height of the financial crisis.

The state fund will emerge with a stake in the bank of 45%. Earlier, Spanish stocks fell by 3% and government bond yields rose above 6%, a level seen as unsustainable.

The World Bank said that it expects growth in East Asian economies to slow in the current year. It has forecast the region to grow by 7.6% in 2012, down from 8.2% last year, not least because of falling demand from key export markets such as the US and Europe.

The changes to the bank restrictions were announced by the China Banking Regulatory Commission, which was quoted as saying it wanted to boost lending and increase the efficiency and transparency of the banking market. According to the new rules, private-sector investors will be allowed to purchase stakes in Chinese banks through a number of means including stock placements, new share subscriptions, equity transfers, and mergers and acquisitions.