UK banks are lagging their European counterparts in the field of social investment and should engage with this growing area of finance more seriously, according to a new report, which was published on the same day the UK Government stepped up its own efforts in the sector.

In a report published yesterday, the Young Foundation, a think-tank, said that despite "positive rhetoric", banks in the UK were doing "significantly less" than in other countries and "risked missing out on a sector in which they could be major players".