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Having a 58% share of the Royal Bank of Scotland, we should be taking a close interest in how our investment is getting on.

We already know the bank is trying to get back on-side with public, customer and political opinion.

What is less obvious is the emerging challenge from its debtor companies getting into financial problems. Some are close to home, but such is the reach of RBS that its financial web spreads wide.

Two large companies in Italy are reported to be in talks with their banks over re-scheduling debt.

One is the country's Yellow Pages company, Seat Pagine Gialle, which has somehow run up debts of three billion euros, and half of that is owed to RBS. It announced on Monday that talks with the Scottish bank have begun and should conclude this month.

Another is Carlo Tassara, the holding company of French-Polish tycoon Romain Zaleski, with more than five billion euros of debt, used to buy a portfolio of blue chip investments which have taken a big tumble on stock markets.

It is reported as having to sell of a 3% stake in Italy's largest bank, and take an interest payment holiday on its loans from two Italian banks, in order to pay off a 1.3 billion euro credit line held by RBS along with BNP Paribas.

RBS is reluctant to talk details on this. Having been active in the derivatives market by which such investments and loans were insured, it may be protected from these companies failing.

But the problems in Milan are a reminder of the exposure of such British banks - and their government/public shareholders - far beyond these shores.