UK’s largest lenders no longer ‘too big to fail’, says Bank of England

Assessment finds customers could access accounts despite any collapse but three banks have shortcomings

The UK's largest banks are no longer too big to fail" and could foot the bill for their own failures, the Bank of England has said, but it found shortcomings at three banks including HSBC and Lloyds.

Fourteen years on from the financial crisis that threatened a collapse of the banking system and led to huge taxpayer bailouts, the Bank of England's first public assessment of lenders' living wills" found that even if a major UK lender were to collapse, customers would be able to access their accounts, and banks could broadly provide services as normal.