The Bank of England will oversee simulated hacking attacks of more than 20 major banks and other financial institutions in the United Kingdom to test the resilience of their computer systems, the Financial Times reported on Monday citing sources.

The FT reported the exercise called cyber threat and vulnerability management, is being overseen by Andrew Gracie, director of the UK's special resolution unit within the BoE.

Companies likely to participate include Royal Bank of Scotland and the London Stock Exchange, the paper said.

The FT said the programme will involve cyber specialists from companies approved to do penetration testing.

BoE has conducted a pilot of the scheme, the FT reported citing two people familiar with the process.

Bank of England could not be immediately be reached outside regular working hours.