UK banks allowed to cut their cash holdings

LONDON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Britain's eight top lenders cancut their cash buffers by a collective 90 billion pounds ($140billion) to help economic growth, the Prudential RegulationAuthority said on Wednesday.

The Bank of England based PRA said in a statement it wasimplementing a policy decided in June by the central bank'sFinancial Policy Committee.

Britain's lenders have been forced in the past to build upliquidity buffers of cash and government bonds far earlier thanrequired under a globally-agreed timetable.

The PRA said banks can scale back their liquidity buffers oncondition they have a minimum core capital ratio of 7 percent.The watchdog has already said it expects the lenders to meetthis condition by the end of this year.

The change was announced on Wednesday by Mark Carney in hismaiden speech as governor of the Bank of England.