Andrew Bailey, the deputy governor of the Bank of England in charge of prudential regulation, has asked the banks in the country to focus more on lending to the customers and not on lobbying ministers for advancing their interests.

The remarks are in line with the warning from Sir Mervyn King that the banks are intensively lobbying senior ministers in the UK to advance their interests. He even noted that some banks have lobbied with the ministers asking them to put pressure on the central bank to reduce the amount of capital required to be held by the banks mandatorily in the UK.

Mr Bailey said, "There have to be ground rules about how things are done - the very large amount of private lobbying is not consistent with having transparent accountable and open processes where we can be held to account, the banks can be held to account, and the Government can be held to account."

Sir Mervyn King, the outgoing governor of the Bank of England has indicated that the low interest rates are likely to continue and dismissed suggestions of monetary policy tightening. Sir Mervyn assured the industry that the interest rates are likely remain low as rising interest rates would create problems for the indebted homeowners.