Bank of England's stress test of banks needs refining - report

LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England's stress tests of lenders meet their objectives of checking if lenders can withstand extreme market shocks but the health checks could be refined, the BoE's Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) said on Wednesday.

The BoE has conducted regular stress tests of top lenders like HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and RBS since the financial crisis a decade ago when Britain had to bail out undercapitalised banks.

"The stress-testing framework is still maturing. And from that vantage point we saw some opportunities for refinement, a view also confirmed in our external outreach," the IEO said in a report.

(Reporting by Huw Jones, Editing by Iain Withers)