The U.K. government said Tuesday it is setting up a panel to monitor bank lending to small businesses.
Senior officials of the Department of Business, Enterprise, and Regulatory Reform, the Treasury, and the Bank of England will have seats on the panel, which "will monitor and enter into a constructive dialogue with individual lenders on the availability, risk, and overall cost" of lending to small businesses, the government said.
The United Kingdom's five major "High Street" banking companies have agreed to provide data to the panel on loan availability.
The government also said the companies agreed to "fundamentally revise" the statement of principles that structures the relationship between banks and small businesses.