The Bank of England has axed this year’s stress-testing exercise and given firms additional supervisory guidance for how they should handle the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.

The decision to drop the stress tests was taken to “help lenders focus on meeting the needs of UK households and businesses”, the BoE said. It has also paused its biennial “exploratory” stress test to reduce the burden on staff at banks.

The BoE set out several supervisory guidelines in the same announcement. It