I own both myself, the $ prefs from RBS that one can buy on the exchange are probably still good value but volatile and the lloyds prefs are still at very high yields.

if i had to choose between them i would suspect lloyds has a better forward looking business and its common shares will probably recover better than rbs in the medium term. lloyds generates free cashflow and strong EPS even in the downturn, it is less international and more old school both of which are going to be positives into the continued balance sheet deleveraging and stabilisation phase we should see over the coming years.

both banks, with their balance sheet cleansed are now free to lend at some of the best spreads seen in banking sonce the 30s, which could put them in an unenviable position, providing the government doesnt start to exert pressure to get them to make uneconomic decisions to support certain

the usual advice applies, dont buy all in at once, split the risk out amongst a few names and do your own research.

NW C, RBS F, RBS H, RBS L, RBS M, RBS N, RBS P, RBS Q, RBS R, RBS S, RBS T are the 25$ RBS Prefs, while RBS has bought back from tier1 and tier2 capital, i dont think it will tender for these pref shares as if it was going to then it would have done so already. plus NWBD is a natwest one and there are some in eurobond format such as 7.0916

LLPC, LLPD, LLPE, LLPG, LLPF are the main lloyds domestic prefs, along with which there are a series in eurobond form, the lloyds 13s and lloyds7 7/8

there is also barclays which have 4x 25$ prefs BCS C, BCS A, BCS D, BCS. Also the 14s as well as 4.75s and 4.875 in euros trade in eurobond format.

if you want to stick in gbp then there are also the arriva/ga pref shares GACB, AV/B, AV.A, GACA, BWSA - the bristol and west and ANLB an old abbey deal.

one thing to note before investing in these things, is that they are stocks and as such are correlated to the stock market, so if s&p dumps out again then there is a good chance these 25$ prefs will do the same. however that is really just mark to market and if you are investing for yield, the fundamentals still look good.

good luck