Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Financial System Resilience Index published by the New Economics Foundation in June 2015, what plans he has to improve the resilience of the UK financial system.

This government has delivered a substantial programme of reforms to the UK’s financial regulation. We have placed the Bank of England at the centre of the new architecture and established focused regulators with clear objectives.

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) undertake the supervision of individual firms, while the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) within the Bank of England identifies, monitors and addresses risks to the system as a whole. The FPC regularly publishes a set of indicators that it considers when formulating policy. These indicators can be found on the Bank of England’s website using the link below.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/financialstability/Pages/fpc/coreindicators.aspx

The government has recently legislated to grant the FPC new powers of direction with regard to a leverage ratio framework and the residential mortgage market. These powers will allow the FPC to take action to prevent unsustainable levels of leverage in the financial system and to address any risks to financial stability from the housing market.