Total bank lending to businesses contracted a further £1 billion in June, the latest data from the Bank of England show.With this third monthly decline, business lending for the year now stands at -1.2 per cent, the first time it has entered territory since records began in September 1998.Commenting on the figures, Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said that the effects of the Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC's) £125 billion quantative easing (QE) are yet to be seen in lending figures."The Bank of England has repeatedly stressed that it will take time for QE and other measures undertaken by the Bank and the Government to fully feed through to support bank lending," he said.Earlier this month, the MPC's deputy governor Charlie Bean embarked on a week-long tour of Britain to explain the committee's QE strategy to businesses and industry organisations.When it was announced, the policy sparked concern in some quarters that the cash injection would lead to a sharp correction of the sterling on international currency markets.