British banks pledged £1.9 billion ($2.6 billion) of the Bank of England’s highest-risk Level C collateral at its Aug. 18 six-month funding auction, the largest weekly amount since March 2020 and triple the previous week’s figure. Total Level C collateral obtained through the Indexed Long-Term Repo facility reached about £17.8 billion ($24.0 billion), up from £8.7 billion a year earlier and less than £1 billion in mid-2024. The increased use of higher-risk credit assets for central-bank cash has raised questions about banks’ balance-sheet exposures, private-market demand and the risks created by the Bank of England’s broader collateral eligibility rules.