Foreign-owned bank branches in Britain made the country’s financial crisis worse, shrinking their loan books by almost half at the height of the credit crunch, according to Bank of England research.

英国央行(Bank of England)的一项研究显示，英国境内的外资银行分行加剧了该国的金融危机，在信贷紧缩的最严重时期，这些银行的贷款账簿缩水近一半。

In the latest sign of the BoE’s concern surrounding the impact of international banking on the UK economy, research by the central bank showed lending from foreign-owned branches boomed in the run-up to the crisis before collapsing by 45 per cent between the third quarter of 2007 and the same period in 2009.

英国央行的这项研究显示，在金融危机之前，外资银行分行的贷款曾迅速增加，但在2007年第三季度至2009年第三季度，这些银行的放贷规模锐减45%。这项研究是一个最新迹象，表明英国央行对于国际银行业对英国经济的影响感到担忧。

The study, released late on Friday, highlights the difficulties in kickstarting credit creation following the slump in lending triggered by the crisis. The Funding for Lending scheme and Project Merlin, the government’s flagship initiatives to spur lending to Britain’s households and businesses, have so far failed to reverse the decline. But involvement in both schemes is confined to UK-owned banks.

上周五晚公布的这项研究，突显出在金融危机引发放贷下滑之后重启信贷创造的难度。英国政府用来刺激针对英国家庭和企业放贷的旗舰计划——融资换放贷计划(Funding for Lending Scheme)和梅林计划(Project Merlin)迄今都未能逆转贷款下滑的趋势。但这两项计划涵盖的范围仅限于英资银行。

The research shows UK-owned banks, which have repeatedly come under fire from government and lobby groups for their reluctance to lend more to smaller companies and households, pulled back their lending far less dramatically than foreign branches during the height of the crunch, shrinking their loan books by 14 per cent over the same two-year period.

这项研究显示，曾多次因不愿对较小企业和家庭增加放贷而受到政府和游说组织抨击的英资银行，在信贷紧缩的最严重时期收缩放贷的力度远远不及外资银行的分行。从2007年第三季度至2009年第三季度，英资银行的贷款账簿缩水14%。

The UK was also far more prone to a damaging collapse in foreign lending, which commonly occurs during international banking crises, than elsewhere.

此外，相对于其他国家，英国更容易遭受外资放贷的破坏性收缩，而在国际银行业危机中，外资放贷收缩的现象相当常见。

According to the research, foreign-owned branches now account for a third of total UK banking assets. At the end of 2007, the figure was 45 per cent of UK banking assets, compared with 5 per cent in the eurozone and 9 per cent in the US.

根据这项研究，外资银行分行现在占英国银行业总资产的三分之一。2007年底，这个比例为45%，而欧元区和美国的这个比例分别为5%和9%。