Economics
Mervyn King Still Doesn't Think British Banks Are Safe Enough
- More capital, liquidity, regulation since Lehman, but...
- Banks still haven’t issued full amount of loss-absorbing debt
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The U.K. banking system is stronger than it was after it almost brought the nation to its knees a decade ago, but people who oversaw the crash are still fearful of a repeat.
“The big lesson to me is that although banks today are safer than they were then, they’re not safe,” Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England as the financial crisis broke, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. His former underling, Victoria Cleland, now one of the central bank’s top-ranking women after she was tapped to help contain the damage from Northern Rock, says the awareness of risk remains heightened.