At the meeting held yesterday afternoon Alistair Darling effectively threatened Britain’s biggest banks with a competition inquiry should they fail to increase cheap lending to mortgage borrowers and small businesses.
The Chancellor met the chief executives of seven of the country’s biggest banks in the Treasury yesterday along with Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, Baroness Vadera, Minister for Competitiveness, Small Business and Enterprise, Lord Myners, the City Minister, and senior officials from the Bank of England, the Times reports.
Amongst those banks present were Lloyds Banking Group, RBS, HSBC and Barclays.
According to the BBA who represent the aforementioned banks, lending to small businesses rose by £391 million in June, whilst almost 50,000 new small business banking relationships were established. Deposits from small business grew by £577 million.
Lloyds Banking Group Shares (LON:LLOY) are up 3.58% in early morning trade this morning as the banks market capitalisation continues to improve.
RBS (LON:RBS) is up 2.03%.
