Insolvent banks - reform plans
The Northern Rock crisis has prompted Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer, to announce proposals for a special insolvency regime for banks in the UK. Following the publication of a consultation paper in October 2007, “Banking reform – protecting depositors”, and consideration of its results, the Chancellor revealed in an interview with the Financial Times, reported here on 3 January, some hints about his intentions.
Details are patchy – perhaps deliberately – with the Chancellor planning to release more information to the Treasury Select Committee on Thursday 10 January.
It seems that the FSA (Financial Services Authority) would have a role to step in at the beginning of one or more “trigger events” such as the provision of emergency funding by the Bank of England.
A debatable observation from the Chancellor was that “Insolvency laws make it actually quite difficult to move quickly if you need to take action”. He also appeared to criticise the US system, where he said a healthy bank could find itself being restructured, while he suggested that there may be ideas worth following in the Canadian and Belgian systems.
What special insolvency regime does your experience suggest will work for banks?
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