New financial services watchdog unveiled in UK

(BBC): A powerful new "financial policy committee" (FPC) at the Bank of England has been unveiled by the government. It will oversee the government’s new system of regulators, set to replace the Financial Services Authority (FSA). FPC members will include Donald Kohn from the US Federal Reserve, and Sir Richard Lambert, until recently head of the Confederation of British Industry. The FSA will be split up into two new bodies tasked with curbing risk-taking by banks, and protecting consumers. The moves follow Chancellor George Osborne’s decision last summer to abolish the old FSA, whose previously hands-off approach to financial regulation was criticised in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

The new 12-person committee will be organised along similar lines to the Bank of England’s existing monetary policy committee, with a mixture of internal appointees and independent experts from outside the Bank.

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