Description
Many thanks to Baroness Natalie Bennett for citing our recent finding that only 6.6% of new bank lending in 2025 went to the productive economy.
It’s the same story we found last year - and the 14 years before that - because lending to productive industries has halved in real terms since 2010. Instead, banks are using their power to create money in our economy to pump up the prices of already-existing assets to boost their profit margins.
Contrary to what most people think (and what the big banks want us to believe), UK banks don’t lend much to productive industries in the real economy, like high-street shops or factories, to produce more goods or improve their services. So, where’s the money going instead?
After digging into the Bank of England’s data, we found 85% of net new lending by banks in 2025 went to speculative, financial activities, and mortgages.
This means, as Baroness Bennett explained during this parliamentary debate on growth; "For people who own assets, this lending funds further increases in the price of those assets, while people without assets are left even further behind. In fact...mortgages are the only type of lending that has seen significant increases in outstanding credit since the last financial crisis. This is one of the main reasons why property prices have skyrocketed."
Getting new research like this into the hands of parliamentarians is one of the best tools we have to expose the systemic problems in the banking system, and fight back to build a better economy for people and planet, against a very powerful enemy. Join us today: https://positivemoney.org/uk/get-involved-in-uk/
And read the full briefing 'Where did banks lends in 2025?' here: https://www.datocms-assets.com/132494/1772727471-march-2026-bank-lending-research-briefing-docx.pdf
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