Largest U.K. banks will undergo more stringent "stress tests", the Bank of England (BoE) said in a statement on Wednesday. Smaller U.K. banks and British units of foreign investment banks are not affected by this central bank's decision.

"The United Kingdom needs banks than can weather shocks without cutting lending to the real economy," the BoE Governor Mark Carney said.

"The Bank of England is taking steps to ensure we can assess a range of future risks from a number of different sources to inform our micro- and macro-prudential policy decisions," he added.