BoE's Bailey Unlocks Capital: Is the GBP Poised for a Lending Boom?

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has delivered a critical message to the UK banking sector: it’s time to put capital to work. Following successful bank stress tests and the BoE’s recent decision to lower the capital benchmark for UK lenders (reducing the estimated Tier 1 capital buffer from around 14% to about 13% of risk-weighted assets), Bailey asserted that banks should "not keep higher levels of capital than needed."