UK banks spared downgrades by S&P in mass outlook cull

Standard & Poor's carried out a mass-cull of British bank rating outlooks on Thursday in the wake of the country's vote to end its membership of the European Union, but stopped short of downgrading them despite its brutal cut of Britain's sovereign rating. The country's big institutions including HSBC Barclays , Lloyds and well as the UK arms of banks like Santander all saw their rating outlooks cut to negative from stable, while RBS dropped to stable from positive. S&P stripped Britain