Treasury Committee: Regulation preventing lending

Tyrie has written to the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority asking them to investigate the impact of the new regulations.

In a letter to Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England and Hector Sants, chief executive of the FSA, Tyrie warned that the eurozone crisis was already making it harder for banks to raise funding and that banks were put under pressure by investors to implement new rules forcing them to hold more capital.

In addition emergency funding, provided during the financial crisis was being withdrawn.

The letter said these changes were compounded by the eurozone sovereign debt crisis and had resulted in a 7% drop in bank credit in the year to August.

Tyrie wrote: “The squeeze on bank liquidity is running the risk of continued credit contraction setting back the prospects of economic recovery.”

The bank’s latest round of quantitative easing would “do little” to increase funding for the banks, the committee warned.

He suggested the Bank should look at other ideas to relieve what he called the “liquidity squeeze”.

In September, the Bank of England's financial policy committee called on banks to cut staff bonuses and shareholder dividends to save cash.

With powers expected to transfer from the Financial Services Authority to the Bank of England Mr Tyrie called for regulators to ensure there was not a gap in supervision.

However, the committee admitted the Bank may already be taking action in private.

"We readily accept that many of the actions you are taking may, for the moment, need to remain confidential," wrote Mr Tyrie.

He added that they would want to scrutinise the decisions at a later stage.

Bank governor Mervyn King is due to appear before the Treasury Committee on Tuesday to answer questions about the bank's latest round of quantitative easing.