The Bank of England's 50 billion pound lifeline for the UK banking system failed to bring the pound much help with at least as much attention falling on the Royal Bank of Scotland's expected rights issue. Both factors bring to the fore the dire state of circumstances facing the financial system in the UK and as such led to falls for the pound. To some extent, today's plans announced by the Bank of England had been anticipated. Just to what degree it is hard to tell but going by the reaction on currency markets, there was little by way of surprise. Analysts at UBS also said the pound tumbled on market disappointment with the plan. "It is probably too early to judge whether the BoE plan will be a success. It is clear, however, that the UK central bank is trying to avoid the Fed's mistakes at its first TSLF auction," they added. High costs and barriers will likely make sure only those with genuine funding issues will have access to the facility and maintained their bearish stance on the pound. Some believe the BoE will have to up its offer up to 100 billion pounds before there is any significant impact on the wider economy. The reaction on the interbank market where banks lend to each other was also muted with the LIBOR rates at key maturities all staying hardly changed from last week and well above the current 5.00 percent benchmark BoE rate. ECB governing council member Erkki Liikanen said "inflation risks are real" in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. "Our prime mandate is price stability. And history shows that if you fail there, it's a long negative impact on growth and it's very hard to get back," he said, suggesting the ECB will not cut interest rates for the time being. For the dollar, corporate earnings data was crucial. To this end, Bank of America Corp's 77 percent drop in profits in the first quarter, weighed on the dollar.