I discovered this figure.

Total UK consumer Debt is £1,429,624,000,000.

[http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/publications]

It has been appearing in the UK media for the past few days.

This reports that the total debt carried by UK citizens (not HM Government) is £1.429 Trillion = £1429 Billion.

To quantify this number:

UK GDP = £1.495 Trillion (£1495 Billion)

This Consumer Debt to GDP as a ratio = 95%

Of course the bulk of the debt is in outstanding mortgage debt. But what this shows is that consumers are carrying massive amounts of debt.

Thus this explains the levels of assets held by banks. (Assets of the bank are the outstanding loans to consumers, such as loans and mortgages)