Bailey to be grilled over SVB

BANK of England officials will be grilled by MPs over the collapse of silicon Valley Bank and the cut-price rescue of its UK arm by HSBC.

Amid mounting concern over regulation of the global banking system, the House of Commons Treasury committee said it will quiz the Bank’s governor Andrew Bailey and other senior leaders on March 28.

The move came as the Bank’s former chief economist called for tighter regulation of the industry. in a letter to Bailey, committee chairman Harriett Baldwin asked the governor to detail how SVB UK was supervised before the collapse as well as how HSBC was chosen to take over the bank.

she also asked ‘what lessons can be learnt’ from the episode about the regulation of the banking system. in a letter to Andrew Griffith, Economic secretary to the Treasury, Baldwin asked what other support was considered for SVB UK at the time of the HSBC rescue, as well as whether smaller banks serving ‘strategic sectors’ of the economy needed more regulation.

Meanwhile, sir John Vickers, former chief economist at the Bank, said ‘more can be done’ to strengthen regulations brought in after the 2008 financial crisis.