The finance minister has plans to hold a meeting with the chief executives of the UK’s largest banks about their lending capabilities, according to reports.

Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, NatWest, and Santander UK have been summoned to attend the meeting with chancellor Jeremy Hunt next Tuesday.

The London Stock Exchange is also expected at the meeting.

While some reports suggest that the meeting is largely to do with figuring out how boost competitiveness in the UK, Sky News has claimed that the chancellor is concerned that share price weakness is hindering lending to the wider economy.

Sources told Reuters that next week's meeting is being held to seek reassurance that the banks will continue to be able to lend to the UK economy.

“They meet regularly and discuss lots of issues – as you’d expect,” a source told the news agency. “They’re fairly relaxed and unstructured meetings.”

Another source said that the government is regularly holding meetings with firms in the financial industry to monitor a set of new reforms set up by the Treasury.

These reforms are reportedly designed to improve the capital’s competitiveness as a worldwide financial hub following the UK’s exit from the EU.

Barclays declined to comment.

FStech has approached the other banks for comment.

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