Bank executives are being called to a meeting with the Chancellor this week amid speculation that they are being targeted for a windfall tax.

Rachel Reeves has also invited Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, to the session on Thursday when she is expected to outline measures she will introduce in next month’s Budget.

After benefiting from the higher interest rates of the past two years, the banks are being seen as a source of Ms Reeves’ attempts to raise badly-needed revenue.

The Big Four banks – Barclays, HSBSC, Lloyds (owner of Bank of Scotland) and NatWest (RBS) – posted a combined £44.2 billion in pretax profit last year, up 41% from £31.4bn in 2022.

Treasury officials are now said to be considering an increase the bank surcharge, introduced in January 2016, which lenders pay on top of corporation tax.

It was cut to 3% from 8% last April, but the cut was offset by a wider increase in corporation tax, raising the total tax rate to 28% from 27%.

Benjamin Toms, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, estimates that a 3% increase in the surcharge could add roughly £1bn per year to the Treasury’s income.

The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) will release an update on the UK’s approach to implementing tougher global capital standards for lenders, which are known as Basel 3.1.

Separately, Tulip Siddiq, the City minister, will meet industry executives on the same day to discuss how they can roll out more banking hubs which are run in partnership between lenders and the Post Office. They were launched in 2021 and aim to fill the void left by the closure of more than 6,000 bank branches in the past decade. There are now 76 hubs, the government wants to open at least 350 in the next five years and broaden the services they offer.

The meetings come days after Nationwide Building Society’s £2.9bn takeover of Virgin Money was given the green light by the UK’s financial regulators.

The lenders said in statement to the stock market that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the PRA have both approved the takeover. It is expected to complete on 1 October.

It brings together Britain’s fifth and sixth largest retail lenders, creating a combined group with around 24.5 million customers, more than 25,000 staff and nearly 700 branches.