Countercyclical buffer relief to save top UK banks £7bn in capital

In a bid to combat the economic fallout of the coronavirus, the Bank of England released UK banks from the countercyclical capital buffer (CCyB), a ‘rainy day’ equity requirement. The move should support up to £190 billion of bank lending, the BoE said.

The seven major UK lenders – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide, RBS, Santander UK and Standard Chartered – should see their Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital requirements fall by over £7 billion in aggregate, Risk Quantum analysis shows.

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