Financial Institutions - Too Important To Fail?

Background Information At the height of the financial crisis, Governments authorised a massive injection of public funds to rescue ailing private financial institutions in order to prevent a collapse of the financial system. There was general agreement of the need to minimise the risk of this re-occurring both because of the cost to the public … Show more

Background Information At the height of the financial crisis, Governments authorised a massive injection of public funds to rescue ailing private financial institutions in order to prevent a collapse of the financial system. There was general agreement of the need to minimise the risk of this re-occurring both because of the cost to the public purse, and because, for many commentators, the implicit assumption that Governments will step in to support private financial institutions that are simply ‘too important to fail’ will drive excessive risk taking such as that which created the crisis. Oral Evidence As part of the inquiry the Committee held the following evidence sessions. To access the transcripts for these sessions please click on the link at the top of this page. 19 January 2010 Witnesses: Professor Charles Goodhart, Programme Director, Regulation & Financial Stability, Financial Markets Group and London School of Economics Professor Emeritus of Banking and Finance, and Professor John Kay, Visiting Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and a Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford 26 January 2010 Witnesses: Mervyn King, Governor, Paul Tucker, Deputy Governor - Financial Stability, and Andrew Haldane, Executive Director, Financial Stability, Bank of England 9 February 2010 Witness: John Varley, Chief Executive, Barclays 22 February 2010 Witnesses: E. Gerald Corrigan, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs; Douglas Flint, Group finance Director, HSBC 23 February 2010 Witness: Alfredo Saenz, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Santander 2 March 2010 Witness: Lord Turner, Chairman, Financial Services Authority 4 March 2010 Witness: Baron Alexandre Lamfalussy Show less