BoE to Nationwide: Don't hold back SME lending to meet capital rules

The BoE last night reacted angrily to reports that Nationwide was delaying the launch of its small business banking arm, which should be launching this year, to 2016, according to the Daily Mail. A BoE spokesman said: "The plan agreed with Nationwide to meet the 3% leverage ratio in 2015 will not result in them restricting lending to the real economy. Therefore it is wrong to blame their SME decision on the regulator." A report by the Financial Times suggested that the building society was unlikely to launch a full SME service before the 2016 deadline for meeting the new leverage rati...