Banks in the United Kingdom need more capital, even after new regulations created during the financial crisis.

Here’s the Wall Street Journal story:

U.K. banks must come up with £25 billion ($38 billion) in fresh capital this year, the Bank of England warned Wednesday, piling pressure on partly state-owned banks Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Lloyds Banking Group PLC to step up the pace of asset sales.

The Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee said banks’ capital buffers need to be higher to withstand the effects of the weak domestic economy and euro-zone crisis. Gov. Mervyn King, a member of the FPC, said the shortfall isn’t “an immediate threat to the banking system and the problem is perfectly manageable.”

Analysts said the £25 billion figure is roughly what they had expected since the FPC in November said banks might be underestimating their potential losses on U.K. commercial real estate and loans to borrowers in weakened euro-zone countries such as Ireland and Spain.

How the capital will be raised wasn’t immediately clear. Bank of England Deputy Gov. Andrew Bailey, who also sits on the FPC, said around half of the £25 billion is already in banks’ plans for the year. The most common ways for lenders to improve their capital positions are to issue new shares, retain earnings or reduce their overall assets.

The New York Times story had good context and a comparison to the U.S. banking sector at the top of its story, information that many shareholders are likely searching for at this point.

The announcement follows a five-month inquiry by British officials into the financial strength of the country’s banking industry. With the world’s largest financial institutions facing new stringent capital requirements, the Bank of England had been concerned that local firms did not have large enough capital reserves to offset instability in the world’s financial industry.

Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve also released the results of so-called stress tests of America’s largest banks, which indicated that most big banks had sufficient capital to survive a severe recession and major downturn in financial markets. Citigroup and Bank of America, after disappointing performance the previous year, now appeared to be among the strongest.

British banks are not so lucky.

The reported released on Wednesday said that local banks had overstated their capital reserves by a combined £50 billion, which authorities said would now be adjusted on the firm’s balance sheets. Many of the country’s banks already have enough money to handle the accounting adjustment, the report said on Wednesday.

Bloomberg’s story did mention that the capital shortfall wouldn’t require more government investment in the banks, which should put some minds at ease.

BOE Governor Mervyn King said the shortfall “is not an immediate threat to the banking system and the problem is perfectly manageable.” He also said the recommendations won’t require additional government investment in banks.

Lenders will have to reach a common equity tier 1 capital ratio of 7 percent of risk-weighted assets by the end of 2013. While some banks already exceed this level, those that don’t will have to boost capital or restructure their balance sheets without hindering lending to the economy, the BOE said.

“It’s a relatively low bar,” said Cormac Leech, a banking analyst at Liberum Capital Ltd. in London. “They’re saying that the banks will continue to build capital to comply with that metric, so it doesn’t sound like there’s a massive pressure on the banks to exceed Basel III requirements.”

It’s clear that the world’s banks are still reeling from bad loans and struggling to maintain capital ratios up to the new standards. Here’s hoping they can figure it out and raise the money from the private market. I doubt that public sentiment anywhere in the world would support another bank bailout.

Recently we wrote about the plan that Dell founder Michael Dell has for taking the company private and some of the backlash he’s facing from current investors about the offer price.

But Sunday, details about additional offers for the computer maker emerged, setting up a three-way race for control.

Here’s the story from the New York Times:

The Blackstone Group and the billionaire Carl C. Icahn have sent preliminary deal proposals to Dell Inc., people briefed on the matter said on Saturday, signaling that a potential three-way race for control of the computer company is underway.

The letters by Blackstone and Mr. Icahn, sent late Friday night, were meant to keep talks going with a special committee of Dell’s board, one of these people said. The special committee is expected to review the proposals and determine whether either or both are likely to lead to an acceptable bid.

The company’s directors have spent the last 45 days trying to find alternatives to a $24.4 billion offer from Michael S. Dell and theprivate equity firm Silver Lake.

In its letter, Blackstone proposed offering more than $14.25 a share for Dell, working with the investment firms Francisco Partners and Insight Venture Partners, one of these people said. The preliminary plan envisioned offering existing shareholders the opportunity to remain investors in the computer company through what is known as a public stub, though those who wish to sell off their entire holdings can do so.

Blackstone didn’t disclose the potential size of the public stub.

Mr. Icahn outlined a plan to pay $15 a share for about 58 percent of the company, this person said. His proposal is likely to allow shareholders to sell only a portion of their stakes.

The Wall Street Journal chose to focus on the derailment of Michael Dell’s plan to regain control of the company he founded. Here are a few excerpts from its story:

Michael Dell‘s plan to gain greater control of his company and take it private began to backfire, as rival bidders for the computer maker floated competing offers that, if accepted, could leave him out of a job.

The thickening takeover plot shows that some of the most influential players in finance see a brighter future for Dell, or at least a way to make money in the bidding war. It comes as shipments of personal computers around the world have entered a tailspin while tablets and smartphones grow in popularity. PCs represent about half of Dell’s revenue.

It was Mr. Dell himself who kicked off the effort last year to take the company private that now has competing bidders circling.

Mr. Dell, 48 years old, founded the company in 1984 out of his University of Texas dorm room, turned it into a personal-computing powerhouse and, after stepping down as CEO in 2004, returned to resume leadership six years ago.

Back at the helm, Mr. Dell’s efforts to revive the PC-maker sputtered amid competition from resurgent rivals such as Apple Inc. and the rising popularity of smartphones and tablet computers—areas where Dell has been weak. Dell’s revenue and PC market share each have shrunk since Mr. Dell returned as CEO.

The Silver Lake buyout would give Mr. Dell majority control in Dell’s equity and a shot at leading efforts to revive the company as a private entity not answerable to shareholders.

But it’s the shareholders who continue to search for a better deal for the computer maker. Here’s more from the WSJ:

Some Dell shareholders have said Mr. Dell’s buyout offer—about a 25% premium to the share price before news of the deal talks broke—doesn’t fairly value Dell’s business, particularly the cash it generates on a regular basis and its potential to grow in areas like information-technology services. Shareholders including Southeastern Asset Management Inc., T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Mr. Icahn have lambasted the deal as undervaluing the company.

Now, shareholders might have the chance to get more for their money, or to keep shares. Proposals by New York-based Blackstone, the private-equity giant, and Mr. Icahn both aim to give current Dell shareholders who want to retain some stake in Dell’s future a chance to do so. Their potential deals would have bidders buying controlling positions, but not the whole company, leaving some shares to continue to trade publicly in what’s known as a public “stub.”

And it’s the option to retain some exposure to the firm that might leave some investors pushing for one of the alternative proposals. It’s hard to imagine that Iachan, Blackstone, Michael Dell and Silver Lake are all wrong about the potential upside for the company. This may send Dell and his investors back to the drawing board to come up with another proposal in order to keep control.