[cashman]

a gloom settled over the UK banking sector, or will the results season disperse the clouds hanging over Canary Wharf?

The banking sector will be reporting profits in the coming days, starting with Barclays on Tuesday and followed later in the week by Alliance and Leicester and Lloyds TSB.

Hefty writedowns are expected, with the High Street giants revealing their provisions to cover losses from the collapse in credit markets and bad debts as borrowers default on loans.

This will be the first set of audited results since the credit squeeze that tripped up Northern Rock took hold last summer.

The mood is nervous at best, but according to some analysts, it is at its lowest ebb for more than a decade.

The most rosy outlook is that with all the bad news out in the open, the results should help lift the gloom and banks should soon be back to business as usual.

this is from BBC news24, its all a matter of who you listen to.