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Britain seeks to boost exports with new BoE funding rules

A man passes the Bank of England in the City of London January 16, 2014. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain announced new measures on Monday to help exporters raise financing as the government seeks to add more balance to an economic recovery reliant on domestic demand. The changes will allow financial institutions to use export credit notes guaranteed by the British government's trade promotion agency as collateral at the Bank of England, the central bank said. Chancellor of Exchequer George Osborne said that would make it much less risky for banks to lend money to British exporters and so cheapen finance for firms looking to sell abroad. "That should mean billions of extra lending will be made available to our exporters," Osborne said in a speech to business leaders in Rio de Janeiro during a visit to Brazil. The Bank said it was working with the government to allow future export credit loans to be used as collateral. In last month's budget announcement, Osborne said he wanted to create the most competitive export finance regime in Europe. The finance ministry said on Monday the collateral rule change could help reduce the cost of private-sector export finance loans by 5 to 10 basis points. Osborne announced in March that the government's direct-lending programme would be doubled in size to provide 3 billion pounds in finance to exporters. (Reporting by David Milliken and William James; Editing by Catherine Evans)