Banks: Loans

(asked on 10th September 2014) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Funding for Lending Scheme on the lending market in (a) Southend and (b) England and Wales; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Andrea Leadsom Portrait
Andrea Leadsom
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 23rd September 2014

The Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) provides funding to banks and building societies for an extended period, with both the price and quantity of funding provided linked to their lending performance. There is no mechanical link between funding drawn from the scheme and lending activity in any particular nation, region or city. The decision on where, how much and to whom to lend remains a commercial decision for the bank or building society concerned. More generally, the FLS has been successful in helping to reduce bank funding costs to historic lows; and in providing strong incentives for participants to make loans cheaper and more easily available.

Ministers meet with various stakeholders to discuss a broad range of issues. It is not appropriate to reveal the detail of these discussions or to release any information exchanged which may pertain to the FLS. Barclays participated in the first phase of the FLS, which ran until January 2014, but are not participating in the Scheme’s extension. Barclays’ FLS data is publically available on the Bank of England’s website: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/markets/Pages/FLS/default.aspx

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