From Mr Richard Raeburn.

Sir, With reference to your report “ECB set to ‘give plumbing system a reboot’ ” (October 16): this action to accept a much wider range of collateral from commercial banks is precisely what the Bank of England would achieve if it were prepared once again to channel lending to companies through the old-fashioned, proven route of bankers’ acceptances (see John Grout’s letter, “An eighties revival could be the future of liquidity”, October 9).