PRA crackdown on liquidity-poor banks

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has found five UK banks have a shortfall of an aggregate £27.1bn, meaning they are below the minimum 7% liquidity required by Basel III legislation.

PRA crackdown on liquidity-poor banks
2 minutes

RBS, Lloyds, Barclays, Nationwide and the Co-op are all short with RBS being of the greatest concern, accounting for £13.6bn of the £27.1bn total.

Lloyds bank said it was already ahead of schedule in generating the extra cash needed to fill its £8.6bn shortfall.

A spokesperson said: “We have already raised £1.6bn from our core business, profitability etc and an additional £4.2bn has been sourced from non-core disposals. We are a strong capital generating bank and will continue raising cash through these channels as per the agreement we made with PRA in May.”

Nationwide is reported by the PRA to already have a plan in place to ensure it plugs its £400m capital shortfall in full.

The Co-op, which has already identified a £1.5bn capital shortfall, announced earlier this week that it would be offering bond holders the opportunity to swap their holdings for shares in the bank as it looks to resolve its own cash woes.

Santander UK, HSBC and Standard Chartered were all given a clean bill of health by the PRA.

In a statement released today, the PRA said: “All of the firms have been informed of their requirements and have produced for the PRA plans to meet them. It is for the firms themselves to announce the actions they plan to take.

“In aggregate, the additional actions, which include disposals and restructurings, will generate the equivalent of an additional £13.4bn of capital. The PRA believes that these plans can be put into effect. The vast majority of actions are due to be completed by end-2013, but the PRA has allowed some limited flexibility for a small part of these actions to be delivered during the first half of 2014.

“The PRA will hold firms to these plans, and will require additional actions to be taken if capital to cover the full shortfalls is at risk of not being delivered by any firm.”

 

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