Chancellor Alistair Darling has warned UK bankers not to slip back into their old ways as though the financial crisis had never happened as he promises a much tougher regulatory system to control banks.
Darling did not mince his words in an interview with The Independent when he said; “There are people who are too complacent in my view. They need to be brought back to earth.”
“It is not them I am particularly worried about. It is the rest of us who are being affected by it. The individuals concerned [in the banks] are not operating on their own. Some are only operating at all because of very substantial support from taxpayers, who are entitled to tell the Government we must not repeat the mistakes. If they go back to the way they were – to business as usual – without asking themselves over and over again whether they understand what they are doing, that would be disastrous for them and the rest of the world.”
Strong words from Darling, who is hoping that the White Paper to be unveiled next week will bring the Bank of England (BoE) and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) into a more workable partnership, with both sides promised more powers.
The bank will play a more central role in preventing a future boom and bust crisis and assessing risks to the banking system as a whole as well as individual banks.
The FSA will be responsible for not allowing a return to the ‘bonus culture’ of pre-crisis banking, they will also have the power to force banks dealing in high risk areas, to increase capital reserves as a safety net.
The chancellor insisted that the two parties would work closer together in the future saying “They are not competing with each other. They are complementary.”
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