British banks ‘running scared’

British banks are running scared and behaving like children, according to Ralph Silva, a business analyst with the TowerGroup.

Mr Silva has insisted that money received by financial service firms from the Bank of England is being carefully guarded when it ought to be heading into the economy in the form of cheap mortgage deals.

With millions of people being plunged into debt management disaster, Mr Silva has maintained that consumers and analysts should not feel sorry for banking groups as economic problems unfold.

“For the past 20 years they [commercial banks] have been riding a phenomenal wave and they have been making a tremendous amount of money,” he told BBC Radio Five Live’s ‘Wake Up To Money’ programme.

“Now they’re just being ordinary businesses. Let’s not feel sorry for them,” he added.

Vicky Redwood from Capital Economics predicted recently that money lenders in the UK are likely to become increasingly reluctant to offer loan deals to their customers around the country.