The week in pictures

Monday: Bob Diamond, the highest-paid director on Barclays' board, defended the bonus culture in the City as the former deputy prime minister, John Prescott, started on online campaign to stop the Royal Bank of Scotland paying out £1bn in bonuses Photograph: Sarah Lee/Guardian

Monday: In the week that John Varley, the chief executive of Barclays, faced questions from the Treasury select committee, the bank reported profits of £6.1bn Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP

Monday: During a question and answer session at Lancaster House in central London, the prime minister, Gordon Brown, said the government would aggressively pursue action to ensure that rewards for bankers would be based on long-term success, with penalties for those that failed Photograph: John Stillwell/PA

Monday: Chef Antony Worrall Thompson blamed his bank for causing his restaurant chain to go into administration with the loss of 60 jobs Photograph: Daniel Berehulak/Getty

Tuesday: The Treasury select committee received apologies for the banking crisis from Lord Stevenson (pictured), Sir Fred Goodwin, Sir Tom McKillop and Andy Hornby Photograph: PA/PA

Tuesday: President Barack Obama speaks to a crowd in Fort Myers, Florida on the day the US Senate voted in favour of his estimated $838bn spending bill Photograph: Marc Beaudin/AP

Wednesday: Paul Moore, the head of group regulatory risk at HBOS in 2002-05, claimed he was sacked for claiming internally that the bank was 'going too fast' Photograph: PA/PA

Wednesday: The Bank of England governor, Mervyn King, said the Bank was prepared to cut interest rates below 1% and use 'unconventional measures' to dig the economy out of the 'deep recession' Photograph: PA/PA

Thursday: Tesco promised an Easter egg price war after buying up the millions of chocolate eggs ordered by the now defunct Woolworths chain Photograph: Guardian/Guardian

Thursday: The government awarded a £7.5bn contract for the 'super express' train to a Japanese-led consortium Photograph: DoT/PA /PA

Friday: It was announced that the Canadian-born chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, Clara Furse, was being replaced by a former Lehman Brothers banker Photograph: Sherwin Crasto/AP