LONDON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Britain needs more banks, and the government will encourage new and different entrants as part of its pullback from supporting the industry, finance minister Alistair Darling said on Wednesday.
"I made the point in July we have got rather less banks than are ideal," Darling said following a speech at a Thomson Reuters newsmaker event. [ID:nLL127663]
He added: "We do need to make sure we get more competition in the system, which is why -- when we come to divest the shareholdings in the banks -- we can make sure we can encourage new entrants and different entrants into the market.
"The best way of dealing with the problem of the availability of loans and charging and pricing is to make sure you get more competition."
Britain has nationalised Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley but does not intend to keep them for the long term.
Part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland
He said a decision on whether to allow Lloyds to exit a costly government-backed scheme for bad debts and raise money privately had not yet been made. [ID:nLK142764] (Reporting by Steve Slater, editing by Will Waterman)