The Bank of England on Thursday lent 4.0 billion pounds ($5 billion) of one-week funds to banks at its weekly short-term open market operation, a record sum for the facility since its launch in October last year.

The short-term repo facility was designed to run alongside the BoE's quantitative tightening programme so banks can easily access central bank reserves while the BoE winds down its balance sheet, without paying more than Bank Rate.

In return for the funds, banks post the highest grade of collateral with the BoE. ($1 = 0.7955 pounds) (Reporting by Andy Bruce; editing by David Milliken)