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LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) - A future sale of bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L> should be used to help boost business lending, British Business Secretary Vince Cable told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
Cable, who earlier this year suggested Britain should split the lender and create a business bank dedicated to boosting lending to companies and supporting exports, said getting funding into the economy was still "an uphill struggle".
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With small businesses finding it hard to get loans as banks rein in lending to meet higher capital requirements, the government has been seeking to get cash flowing to help promote investment and create jobs.
Last week it detailed its latest scheme to get banks to lend, with some 80 billion pounds of cheap loans available provided they go to households and businesses. [nL6E8IDBTQ]
"When action has to be taken on the future disposal of RBS we shouldn't simply consider it as an asset question, we should think about how it can be used positively to support business lending and create more effective business lending institutions," he said.
The financial impact would also have to be taken into account however, he said. Britain used about 45 billion pounds of taxpayers' money to rescue RBS, and eventually hopes to sell it back to the private sector.
"There are issues about the RBS's role in supporting the economy, but also there are very big fiscal questions about the value of its assets and the extent to which we are responsible for taxpayer money," he said.
Cable also said competition in Britain's banking system, which is dominated by five big lenders - Barclays <BARC.L> , Lloyds <LLOY.L> , Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L> , HSBC <HSBA.L> and Santander <SAN.MC> - was improving.
New entrants such as Metro Bank, Virgin Money and Aldermore, as well as growing existing players such as the Co-operative Group - set to purchase 630 Lloyds branches - are aiming to grab business from more established lenders. [nL6E8HR8ID]
"We now have quite a bit of evidence for the first time in generations of serious competition beginning to emerge in business lending," he said.
(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Stephen Powell)
(([email protected])(+44 207 542 0401)(Reuters Messaging: [email protected]))
Keywords: BRITAIN BANKS/CABLE
me ne vado in vacanza, ovverossia continuo a fare quello che facevo di solito, cioè nulla 
, ma lo farò da un'altra parte 
