A healthy partnership

Banks have been heavily criticised in recent years for not lending, focusing instead on deleveraging, recapitalising and hoarding cash. However, the Long Term Refinancing Operations (LTROs) scheme launched by the European Central Bank (ECB) in late 2011 and 2012, combined with the Bank of England’s Funding for Lending (FFL) scheme and improved inter-bank lending conditions, means the core European banks are now predominantly well funded and should remain so for the foreseeable future.