Bank Supervision in the Context of Global Competition

Abstract

My role in the Bank of England currently has three dimensions. First, I am a supervisor of banks. Secondly, I am heavily involved in the design of the new single financial services supervisory agency, which the government announced in May 1997 it wished to create. This will be known as the Financial Services Authority (FSA). (At the time of the Conference, the agency was known by its provisional title of NewRO.) It will encompass the banking supervision currently done at the Bank of England, the work of the City regulators set up under the Financial Services Act, the supervision of Building Societies and Friendly Societies and the regulation of the Insurance industry. Thirdly, I am the Bank’s Business Ethics Adviser. I therefore propose to focus my remarks on issues that both affect the FSA and have an ethical dimension. However, all these views presented are my personal ones and should in no sense be taken as an official statement either by the Bank of England or by the future management of the FSA.