LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - The Bank of England reported a300 million pound ($455 million) fall in net lending by banksand building societies taking part in its Funding for LendingScheme in the first three months of 2013, but forecast a pick-uplater in the year.
Banks have drawn down 16.453 billion pounds of cheap fundsfrom the FLS since it opened last August, but net lending overthe period has still fallen by 1.790 billion pounds.
"The picture of flat lending growth overall is broadly asexpected at this stage, reflecting reductions in some legacyportfolios being roughly offset in aggregate by expanding newlending," said Paul Fisher, the BoE's executive director formarkets.
"The plans of the FLS participants suggest that net lendingvolumes will pick up gradually through the remainder of 2013,"he added.