Bank of England queries data center loans without tenants

The Bank of England has asked market participants about loans to UK data center projects that have no tenants, as it works to understand the risks in speculative lending to the sector.

Why it matters: Central bank scrutiny of loans against unlet data centers goes to the core of the AI infrastructure financing boom, where rising project costs and opaque, sometimes circular financing have already drawn warnings from the Bank's Financial Policy Committee.

Data as of Single-sourced: Bloomberg reporting as carried by Datacenter Dynamics on November 5, 2026, read in full in this run. No Bank of England document on the queries was published with the report. Developing item.

The Bank of England has reached out to market participants to understand the details behind loans to UK data center projects that do not have any tenants, Bloomberg reported. The questions are not driven by a negative view of speculative lending itself, but by the Bank’s effort to gauge the level of risk in a sector where project costs have ballooned as facility scale has expanded.

The Bank has been examining the interdependence of data center financing over the past year, and its Financial Policy Committee warned last month that AI linked investments’ increasing leverage, opacity and, at times, circular arrangements could complicate risk assessment and amplify losses if expectations disappointed. The Bank for International Settlements has also warned that poor disclosure of deal terms means the same data center asset may be repeatedly pledged.

Bank of England queries data center loans without tenants

Sources