The argument that hiking capital requirements would force banks to drastically alter their stock of assets or cut their levels of lending was a misstatement, David Miles, an external member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), said on Wednesday evening.

In London, Miles said the dialogue about capital requirements was responsible for this distortion. "The idea that banks must shrink lending to satisfy higher requirement on equity funding is a non-sequitur. But there is a