NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Nov 16, 2012) - Foreign Bank stocks have struggled recently as the slowdown in Europe's economy has been worse than expected. The European Commission last week downgraded growth projections for most of the European Union, and has stated that instead of remaining flat they now expect gross domestic product to shrink by 0.3 percent on an annual basis this year. The Paragon Report examines investing opportunities in the Foreign Banking Industry and provides equity research on Barclays PLC (NYSE: [ BCS ]) and Lloyds Banking Group PLC (NYSE: [ LYG ]).

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The governor of the Bank of England (BoE) has warned that Britain's economy may shrink in the fourth quarter and experience sluggish growth into 2013. The BoE has recently lowered its 2013 UK economic growth forecast to around 1.0 percent, from their previous forecast of a 2.0 percent growth.

"The future path of GDP will depend critically on developments in the global environment, with strains in the euro area posing the greatest risk to a sustained recovery," the BoE said in the report. "The outlook for UK growth remains uncertain. A major threat to a sustained recovery is if the adjustments in indebtedness and competitiveness required within the euro area occur in a disorderly manner."

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Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in personal banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking and wealth and investment management with an extensive international presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. A judge has recently ruled that the bank must disclose the identities of Libor traders and employees involved in the LIBOR scandal.

Lloyds Banking Group is a financial services group providing a range of banking and financial services, primarily in the United Kingdom, to personal and corporate customers. The Group recently reported that it has put aside an additional £1 billion for costs associated with mis-sold payment protection insurances, increasing the bill to $5.275 billion.

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