UPDATE: UK Brown: Won't Hesitate To Do More To Revive Lending
January 14 2009 - 8:45AM
Dow Jones News
The U.K. government won't hesitate to take further measures to
revive lending, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday.
"We will not hesitate to look at other measures that are
necessary to" get lending going again, he said during a weekly
question and answer session in parliament.
Brown said the government is monitoring on a weekly basis the
banks the government has invested in to make sure they are meeting
their commitment of maintaining lending at 2007 levels.
Brown also said the government is hoping to see building
societies put in place a moratorium on repossessions.
He also underlined that the government was prepared to "back
financially measures that will allow people to extend their
mortgages at a time of difficulty."
The government announced earlier this month a scheme that would
allow some borrowers to defer a proportion of their interest
payments for up to two years, with the government underwriting some
of the lenders' risk of losses.
Brown also reiterated that the government is prepared to offer
support to the auto sector, on top of Wednesday's announcement of
billions of pounds worth of loan guarantees and other support for
small and medium-sized businesses.
He said the two challenges the industry faces are the sharp drop
in demand and the difficulty at credit financing arms which make
loans for car purchases.
"We have to look at what we can do to make sure that the (auto
credit) market doesn't freeze," he said."In other words, we will do
what we can to help."
-By Laurence Norman, Dow Jones Newswires, +44 207 842 9498;
laurence.norman@dowjones.com
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