David Ramsden: The UK's progress on resolvability

Speech by Sir David Ramsden, Deputy Governor for Markets and Banking of the Bank of England, at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, 26 February 2021.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Thank you for inviting me to come to speak at the virtual ICAEW. I can't think of a better venue for my first speech on resolution – particularly because of the vital role which the accountancy profession plays in some of our key resolvability judgements and safeguards, which fundamentally underpin the credibility of the regime.

The Bank of England is the UK's Resolution Authority; within the Bank I took on Deputy Governor level responsibility for resolution a year ago. It has been a fascinating time for me to take on this important responsibility, allowing me to contribute to the ongoing shaping of our resolution regime as it develops towards its immediate goal.

That goal, a strategic goal for the Bank, is ending 'too big to fail' by making sure the firms we supervise can fail in an orderly way no matter their size. Put more practically we committed to Parliament that major UK banks should be resolvable by 20221. That goal is central to the PRA's general objective to promote the safety and soundness of the firms we supervise, as well as to the Bank's financial stability objective of ensuring that the UK financial system can serve UK households and businesses in bad times as well as good.