Taxpayers would be on the hook for billions of pounds in another banking crisis because too many institutions are still ‘too big to fail’, the chairman of the Commons Treasury Committee has warned.
More than seven years after the last crash the industry still poses a threat to the economy, Andrew Tyrie said in a speech.
His warning comes just days before the publication of a long-awaited and potentially damning report into the collapse of Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS).
In a speech in London, Mr Tyrie said it was “unacceptable” that MPs had been told that major UK banks were not yet in a position where ministers could allow them to fail.
“This is as unacceptable for the public finances as it is unsustainable politically," he said.
“The tax paying public’s tolerance of another bail-out is low, to put it mildly.
“And the public are right.
“Millions of taxpayers would be vulnerable to paying for another bail-out if the largest and most complex banks cannot be (allowed to fail)."
He warned that regulators should not give in to “special pleading” from banks.
“(They) regulators must have confidence that they can let a major bank go bust, without serious contagion risk," he said.
Stewart Hosie, the SNP’s deputy leader, said: “It is absolutely right that taxpayers should not be on the hook if there was another financial crisis.”
Later this week the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority will publish the results of their investigation into what happened at HBOS.
The 500-page document is expected to include criticism of the role of James Crosby, the bank’s chief executive during its period of rapid growth, and Lord Stevenson, its former chairman.
Mr Crosby asked to be formally stripped of his knighthood two years ago after a scathing Westminster report into the downfall of the Scottish bank.
The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, of which Mr Tyrie was also the chairman, accused Mr Crosby of being the “architect of the strategy that set the course for disaster”.
The 2008 baking crisis led to the takeover of HBOS by Lloyds.
But the new bank was later bailed out with £20 billion of taxpayers’ money.
The HBOS report will be published alongside an inquiry into regulator’s action following the bank's failure.
Only one former HBOS executive was sanctioned in the wake of the collapse.
The report had been expected to be published in 2013.
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