Bank of England steps up lending to large companies

LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England has increased net lending to large companies via its scheme to buy debt known as commercial paper by more than 3.6 billion pounds ($4.46 billion) over the past week.

The BoE said on Thursday its holdings of commercial paper under the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) rose to 5.504 billion pounds as of April 8 from 1.878 billion pounds on April 1.

The facility is open to companies which had an investment-grade credit rating before they were affected by the coronavirus, or similar financial strength.

(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by William Schomberg)