Edinburgh Zoo says that it is on course to obtain a pair of Giant Pandas some time next year. Even though it appeared that the project was in doubt when it was revealed that the zoo's bank (Royal Bank of Scotland) who had been reported has underwriting the project had not entered in to a formal agreement to do so.

David Windmill, chief executive of the RZSS, said:

"The government would have asked us how we were going to fund it and I would have said that we are in talks with our bank, which was RBS at the time. RBS knew about the project, as one of its directors was on our board. It had shown an interest, but that was all."

Since last year the zoo had moved to Lloyds TSB, which is aware of the project though no formal talks about the funding have been staged between the zoo and the bank. The zoo is in talks with other sponsors and expects to find funding once the loan of the pandas has been agreed with the Chinese Goverment.