The Tompkins family had been customers of Riggs Bank for nearly 50 years when a money-laundering scandal at the Washington lender prompted them to take their business elsewhere.

WSJ: A Family Loses Its Faith in Trust

If you place your money with a peer-to-peer lender like Zopa, you are not lending to Zopa, in the way that you are lending to Barclays if you put your money on deposit with Barclays.

BBC: What threat to banks from internet lenders?

Several lenders, including Countrywide, America's largest mortgage lender, have stopped making no-money-down mortgage loans.

ECONOMIST: America's housing market

Any bank with its headquarters in Scotland would need certainty about which central bank it could turn to for money when markets freeze - which central bank would be its lender of last resort.

BBC: Could RBS stay in an independent Scotland?

Much of the money comes from a group of corporate sponsors and investors that includes state-owned lender OAO Sberbank, state-owned oil giant OAO Rosneft and oligarch Vladimir Potanin's holding company Interros.

WSJ: Menu

Most of the bailout money is expected to go to Cyprus Popular Bank, the island's second-largest lender, which is heavily exposed to debt-laden Greece.

BBC: Cyprus begins EU presidency amid cash woes

Even so, six months after Wonga (Brit-slang for money) was launched in July 2008, it was already profitable and is now the biggest short-term lender in Britain.

FORBES: Names You Need To Know: Wonga

Guillermo Ortiz, a former Mexican finance minister who is now chairman of Banorte, a Mexican lender, wants subsidiaries of foreign banks in emerging markets to be ring-fenced so that money cannot be funnelled out of the country.

ECONOMIST: Reshaping banking

The Money Store, which is one of the biggest providers of small-business loans in America and the third-biggest lender to students, has also made its mark in businesses where First Union wants to expand.

ECONOMIST: Fishing downmarket