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UK lenders today scrambled to borrow money from the Bank of England, bidding more than four times the amount of money the central bank made available in its weekly auction despite a recent pledge to pump £50 billion into the wholesale funding market.
Lenders sought £71.5 billion from the Bank, far above the £15.3 billion available in the weekly auction. Last month, the Bank of England revealed its "special liquidity scheme" allowed banks to swap mortgage assets in exchange for Government bonds that could then be used to raise collateral.
While the three-month London inter bank offer rate (Libor), which is the cost banks charge to each other, fell from 5.79313 per cent to 5.78438 per cent today, it is still above the UK interest rate which the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep on hold today at 5 per cent.
It had been hoped that the £50 billion scheme would have a positive knock-on effect on the UK mortgage market, where lenders have been increasing rates on home loans as the cost of wholesale funding remains high.
However, Mervyn KIng, the Governor of the Bank of England, recently admitted that the scheme was not designed to help banks and mortgage companies to return to the days of 100 per cent lending and risk taking. “We’re not doing this because we have an interest in the financial position of the banks as such, but their ability to finance growth in the rest of the economy,” he said.
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Wow, they really want this cheap money - maybe things are worse than we have been told. Why this arrangement has been made I don't know, it certainly hasn't changed the tight mortgage conditions and the high interest rates. GORDO wants the house market to motor on - but it won't happen.
David Nammory, Liverpool,
I think that I will bid for some of this and when I can't pay it back because I pay myself a huge bonus then the BOE will give me more!!!! PERFECT MARKET BEHAVIOUR EH?
phil, york, england
Isn't £71 billion quite a lot of money?Where has it come from,who is going to pay it back and when?
stephen hulton, eure, france
So once again the BOE inflates the money supply by another outrageous amount, what will they blame the rise in prices on, when the INFLATION finally filters through to the high street.
The good thing about FIAT MONEY (money with no backing what-so-ever) is you can print as much as you want.
GREAT.
Andrew Snowden, Keighley, England
Banks still don't trust each other. This is a global phenomenon, not a UK one. Until this changes, LIbor will remain high and liquidity relatively low. I struggle to see a reason why the situation should change. Everyone seems to backing 'hope'.
Michael, London,
The BOE must have the printing presses running 24 hours a day to pay for this.........
Jin, London, UK
Please, tell me how much money does the Bank of England have. It seems they have a never ending source available. Surely their must be a limit to handouts.
Terry Elcock, Cambridge,
Does anyone know what they are doing in government. If there is such a large demand for money, then it must reflect that there is a shortfall of immediate funding needs by the banks of around 60 million pounds stirling. The banking crisis is definitely continuing.
Jim Wills, Brisbane, Australia
As the BoE base rate is more than 0.75% below the Libor rate, the banks are getting a bargain. The BoE therefore has scope for three quarter-point rate rises to strengthen Sterling and attenuate the inflationary pressures building up in the economy.
Paul, Coventry,
Will someone please point out to Mervyn that there is a big difference between controlling inflation and putting sticking plasters on an unsustainable housing bubble.
Tony Peterson, kendal,