Nevertheless, the Chancellor Alistair Darling has set a meeting for this afternoon, and bosses from Lloyds Banking Group, RBS, HSBC and Barclays will attend.
The Chancellor will have his corner boosted by the stronger health of the banking sector; today sees the banks continue a fine run on a newly resurgent FTSE, suggesting the markets believe the banks to be out of the danger that lead them to restricting their loan sheets in the first place.
Lloyds Banking Group shares (LON:LLOY) are 2.58% up at 8:32am, and RBS (LON:RBS) shares are 3.92% up.
The Chancellor is believed to be “extremely concerned” about lending to businesses and said that banks must “live up to the promises” they made after being bailed out with £37 billion in taxpayers’ money.
Darling said yesterday the rate of interest charged by banks appeared to have risen while the base rate is at an historic low of 0.5%.
