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Treasury select committee chairman Andrew Tyrie's campaign to bolster the accountability of the Bank of England was snubbed today as the Government threw out his central proposal for a beefed-up supervisory board.
With the Bank of England set to gain new powers for bank supervision under the Financial Services Bill presented to Parliament today, Tyrie has been pressing for the Bank's historic governing court to be replaced by a smaller and more efficient supervisory board to improve the oversight of the Bank.
Tyrie wanted the new board to be able to commission internal reviews of the Bank's policy making and regulatory performance no less than a year after the event, to "strengthen the Bank's collective memory". But this was opposed by Bank Governor Mervyn King at a fractious select committee hearing last week, warning the move could "second-guess" the decisions of the Bank's committees.
The Bank's proposal is for an "oversight committee" of non-executive court members which would be allowed only to examine decision-making processes around financial stability, and commission external reviews from experts such as the IMF.
The Treasury ceded some ground today in deciding the new oversight board should also be able to commission internal reviews of the Bank's performance, but monetary policy will be excluded from its remit.
The Treasury's response stated: "The Government is not minded at this time to pursue the more radical changes to Bank of England governance proposed by the TSC."
Reader views (1)
If more MP's had the courage of Andrew Tyrie and his committee to suggest what needs to be done with such ease and in, more's the case, an easy to understand way. Then maybe the mess that Mr Osborne is failing to address with any coherent plan would have been sorted by now.
Mr Tyrie console yourself in the knowledge that its hard to soar like an eagle when you're surrounded by turkeys.
- Robert Marshall, London, 30/01/2012 11:20
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