According to the governor of the Bank of England, the bank is on “intensified” alert in case the banking industry experiences more unrest.
Andrew Bailey assured Parliament that the UK financial system was not under stress as a result of the current issues facing lenders.
Since the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, which raised doubts about the stability of other lenders, officials have made an effort to soothe investors.
Concerns over the stability of the powerful Swiss banking behemoth Credit Suisse in Europe prompted a hasty takeover by competitor UBS. Sharp drops in banking shares across the globe have been caused by market jitters.
The Bank of England would “continue being attentive,” according to Mr. Bailey’s statement to Treasury Committee members.
Since the 2008 financial crisis, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has been the largest US banking failure, and depositors have had difficulty withdrawing their funds.
Recent increases in interest rates, which had a negative impact on the value of SVB’s assets, were a factor in the collapse.
While HSBC saved the lender’s UK subsidiary, American regulators had to intervene to protect clients.
The incident has sparked a contentious discussion in the US about whether SVB was properly supervised and if authorities handled its collapse appropriately.
The failure was termed “a textbook case of mismanagement” by financial regulators at a proceeding in Washington on Tuesday. They blamed SVB leaders for failing to change their methods as interest rates rose last year, despite official cautions.
Senators, however, questioned them, claiming that the incident had also shown oversight flaws.
Senator Jon Tester, a Democrat from Montana, said that it appeared that authorities were aware of the issue but did nothing to address it.
The pace of the SVB’s collapse caught UK banking regulators off guard, as they revealed to lawmakers, and may indicate that banking regulations need to be updated.
The global financial crisis of 2008, when banks ceased lending to one another and the globe entered a serious recession, Mr. Bailey told Parliament, did not, in his opinion, apply to the UK.
The SVB scandal, according to Michael Gruenberg, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in the US, “demonstrated the higher risk of bank runs at a time when currency may flow out of organisations with remarkable speed in response to news reinforced by social media channels.”
He and other US regulators voiced support for tightening banking regulations, reforms that certain Democrats like Elizabeth Warren have pushed for. Republican opposition to tougher regulation, though, makes it less likely to take place.
