Nearly 14 years after the financial crisis threatened the collapse of the banking system and led to huge taxpayer bailouts, the Bank of England’s first public assessment of lenders’ “living wills” found that even if a major UK lender failed customers could access their accounts and banks could generally provide services normally. It also ruled that shareholders and investors, not taxpayers, would be first in line to cover banks’ losses and ensure they have enough capital to operate. However, the Bank warned that “further improvements” had to be made by some of the largest banks to avoid the chaos that followed the 2008 financial crisis, which forced the UK government to spend $ 137 billion on System. He said three lenders – HSBC, Lloyds and Standard Chartered – had to deal with shortages that could otherwise “unnecessarily complicate” their ability to fail safely. Each of the three lenders was found to have either not had sufficient financial resources or did not have adequate data and metrics to ensure that it could absorb losses without endangering public money. Concerns were also raised about whether HSBC could properly restructure the business to ensure that services were still being provided while authorities helped close the lender. Standard Chartered was also highlighted for not identifying all the restructuring options available to it. Subscribe to the daily Business Today email or follow the Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk Lenders will have until 2024 – when the next assessment will be made – to address the shortfalls. The rating covered a total of eight high street banks, including Barclays, Nationwide, NatWest, Santander UK and Virgin Money UK. Dave Ramsden, the Bank of England ‘s Deputy Governor, said the exercise was a key part of the UK’ s response to the global financial crisis and “shows how the UK has overcome its problem ‘too big to fail’.” He said: “The UK authorities have developed a consolidation regime that successfully reduces the risks to depositors and the financial system and better protects the UK’s public funds. “Securing a large bank will always be a complex challenge, so it is important that both we and the big banks continue to prioritize work on this issue.”
