The news that UK banks are already preparing up to £90bn of mortgage-backed bonds to send to the Bank of England will come as no surprise to some people.

The unveiling of the Bank’s Special Liquidity Scheme just three weeks ago was met with estimates from securitisation analysts that banks could draw down more than £700bn of liquid government bonds in exchange for existing and newly created mortgage bonds. The European Central Bankhad €150bn-€180bn of asset-backed bonds pledged in its liquidity operation at the end of December, the month for which the latest data are available. Most observers think that figure will have grown substantially as securitisation markets have stayed closed.