Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON:LLOY), Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (LON:RBS) and other banks have been told to set aside more funds to cover a possible rise in credit card and other bad debts.
Bank of England governor Mark Carney said he was increasing the consumer credit cycle buffer to 0.5% from 0% currently and would likely raise it again to 1% by the end of next year.
In money terms, the rise in the buffer will cost the banks a collective £5.7bn now and another £5.7bn if it does rise to 1%.
Share prices of the major banks reacted calmly. Barclays rose 2% to 203.7p, Lloyds 0.3% to 66.7p and RBS 0.3% to 250.6p as the increase had been widely expected.
Last week, US investment bank Goldman Sachs predicted the increase to 0.5% as it recommended a 'sell' on Lloyds and also Barclays (LON;BARC).
The buffer change was contained within the Bank of England’s twice –a-year Financial Stability Report, which suggested the banks had become too complacent about their consumer credit loan books.
"Lenders may be placing undue weight on the recent performance of loans in benign conditions," the report said.
Debt on credit cards, personal loans and car finance (or consumer credit) had risen by 10% over the past year the report said, way ahead of income growth.
The Bank is especially concerned here as, unlike mortgages, defaults tend to be written off.
A stress test for consumer credit is being brought forward by six months to gauge how the banks will cope with a much higher level of default.
The Bank also tweaked the rules for mortgage lending to clamp down on the practice of bending the stress tests to allow more to lent to large borrowers.