Bank of England cancels annual stress test of banks

LONDON, March 20 (Reuters) - The Bank of England said on Friday it was cancelling this year's stress test of eight major banks and building societies to enable them to focus on providing lending through the coronavirus crisis.

"The recent 2019 stress test showed that the UK banking system was resilient to deep simultaneous recessions in the UK and global economies that are more severe overall than the global financial crisis, combined with large falls in asset prices and a separate stress of misconduct costs," the BoE said.

The BoE also said it was delaying other regulatory reports on bank liquidity and climate risk, and a study into open-ended investment funds. (Reporting by David Milliken; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)