"The ECB and the Bank of England activated a currency swap arrangement in March 2019, through which the Bank of England offers to lend euros to UK banks on a weekly basis," the ECB said.

"As part of the same agreement, the Eurosystem would stand ready to lend pounds sterling to euro area banks if the need arises," it added.

The ECB added that its banking supervision arm has processed around 25 license requests from banks relocating to the euro area and assessed the Brexit plans of 42 euro area banks that will maintain their UK branches.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Francesco Canepa)