MANSION HOUSE: King reveals ‘tragic' regulatory failings

Mervyn King has claimed low capital requirements and inadequate limits on leverage have been the most "tragic" aspects of financial regulation.

In his Mansion House speech last night, the Bank of England governor looked ahead to the role of the Financial Policy Committee, which meets for the first time on Thursday, and the new approach to banking regulation. He also answered his own question on what aspect of regulation was the "most deserving of the adjective ‘tragic'". "It is the mistaken belief that by compromising on unduly low capital requirements and inadequate limits on leverage, regulators can compensate by a detailed oversight of every aspect of a bank's activities," he said. "It did not take complex reporting to ...