LONDON — Bank of England governor Mervyn King warned Thursday that Britain's troubled banks may need to tap the government for more money to shore up their battered finances and downplayed fears that measures to boost the money supply will stoke inflationary problems in the future.

Addressing lawmakers on the influential Treasury Select Committee, King said it will take many months for the government and regulators to work out the true underlying financial position of the banks.

"How much capital banks will need in the end is impossible to tell because in large part it will reflect developments in the world and our own economy that are impossible to predict with any precision," King said.

The governor's comments came after Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC said it will dump around 325 billion pounds worth of toxic assets into a government insurance scheme — a move that could see the state increasing its stake in the bank to 95 percent. Barclays PLC opted out of the government recapitalization and chose instead to take money from Arab investors.