LONDON. June 5 : The British Government has taken the unusual step of sumnronlng leading commercial bankers to top-level meetings to Impress on them the importance of passing on interest rate cuts to customers, reports Reuter

Prime Minister John Major told parliament on Tuesday that the Bank of England and the Treasury was investigating the record of banks setting interest rates for small busl

"1 am very concerned about the growing level of complaints we have heard from small businesses that they are being harshly treated by their banks," Major said

His comments were the toughest In a series of re minders to financial Institutions of the need to pass on

Interest rate cuts as soon as possible.

Major, eager to see the benefits of interest rate cuts flow into the economy quickly to ease a sharp recession, said the government took the problem seriously.

The Banks themselves can be tn no doubt whatsoever about the strength of feeling on this issue, they are as aware as anybody else that their Interest lies in having a sound base of small firms around for the future. Major said.

Another reports from Osaka adds : Globalisation of the world banking industry, which saw foreign banks take one third of the US lending mar kel. may soon reverse course, Barry Sullivan, Chairman of First National Bank of Chicago, said on Tuesday