With all the talk of recession, international debt and governments bailing out banks it was nice to hear that one bank has actually decided to resort to banking methods to tide itself over!

Barclays Bank have apparently decided to raise £7.3billion to shore up their balance sheet. However, unlike other banks, they have decided that they will not accept a government bailout and have decided to raise the money from the state investment funds and royal families of Abu Dhabi and Qatar. As a result of this news Barclays shares rose 8.4%. Of course there is a price to pay in as much as the deal will give the middle eastern investors more than a 30% stake in the bank.

Marcus Agius, Barclays Chairman, said that they believed this move would maintain Barclaysas a ‘strong, independent and well-capitalised' bank and I do have to say that I find it very refreshing that Barclays are dealing with the present economic climate in a businesslike way instead of asking the taxpayer to sort it out for them!