LONDON (Reuters) - The 39.7 billion pound BT Pension Scheme (BTPS) has banned stock lending for 20 British and global financial companies, its fund manager Hermes said on Friday.

Paul Lee, a director at Hermes Equity Ownership Service, said the asset manager had made the decision to put a number of financial stocks on its lending stop list earlier this week.

BTPS is the largest pension fund in the UK.

(Reporting by Raji Menon; Editing by David Holmes)