Chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling has defended the sums of money lent to the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) a year ago after details of the loans emerged this week.

£61.6 billion was provided for the two beleaguered banks by the Bank of England, a fact which had been kept under wraps until now.

However, Mr Darling said that this was the right decision, as disclosing the information could have seriously harmed Britain’s financial system.

He described the Bank’s view that "any disclosure or leak of the operations would seriously jeopardise the financial stability of the system as a whole", stating that he "shared this assessment".

The fact that the two banks were able to pay back the loan in January has fuelled hopes of a revival in the financial services sector. This could increase the availability of banking graduate jobs and places on finance graduate schemes.

Last week, the Treasury announced new powers for the Financial Services Authority which it hopes will prevent bankers’ bonuses which encourage financial risk.

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