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LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) - The Bank of England has helpedto increase competition in banking even though some officialsmay have preferred focusing entirely on keeping lenders safe, aBoE report said on Wednesday.
The UK government is keen to weaken the dominance of the BigFour banks - Barclays, RBS, Lloyds and HSBC - on Britain's highstreets by making it easier for new banks to enter the market.
It gave the BoE's Prudential Regulation Authority, whichauthorises banks, a secondary remit in 2014 to promote effectivecompetition. Its core objective is to keep lenders safe.
The PRA had achieved "positive results" regardingcompetition, the BoE's Independent Evaluation Office said in areport.
"The PRA also delivered substantive reforms toauthorisations policy to address potential barriers to entryinto banking ahead of the secondary competition objective(SCO)coming into effect," the report said.
"Nevertheless, we also found residual misgivings in someparts of the institution about the compatibility of the SCO withthe PRA's primary objectives; this may have slowed the PRA'sprogress in embedding and communicating on the SCO to a degree."
The PRA, which has eased initial capital requirements andfast-tracked approval of top staff at new lenders, said itaccepted the report in full and was clear about the need toconsider the SCO throughout policy making.
(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
