Cross-border lending by banks rises first time since Lehman collapse

Cross-border lending by banks rose at the start of this year for the first time since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in a sign that the reversal of financial globalisation seen in the past two years is coming to an end.

Global banks boosted lending outside their national borders by $700bn, or 2.1 per cent, to $33,400bn in the first quarter of this year, according to figures from the Bank for International Settlements, which is known as the central bankers’ bank

A sharp drop in foreign lending following the turmoil in markets in the autumn of 2008 led to worries about financial globalisation as banks around the world cut international lending and focused increasingly on their domestic markets.

“The balance sheet repair of the global banking system continues apace,” said Huw van Steenis, banking analyst at Morgan Stanley. “The dominant story of the first half of the year was the credit recovery in northern Europe and the US.”

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