Q&A: Alastair Clark on the challenges facing the Bank of England's FPC

The Bank of England’s new macro-prudential regulatory body has met a grand total of four times and currently has no actual power – but it is already stepping on toes and starting debates. One of the Financial Policy Committee’s four external members, Alastair Clark, talks to Duncan Wood about its growing pains

Alastair Clark

It is the kind of decision that would give a supervisor sleepless nights: faced with a boom in mortgage lending to lower-income borrowers, should the market be shut down? On the one hand, products with a high loan-to-value (LTV) ratio are risky, giving a bank little security. On the other, home ownership can be a way for poorer families to climb the wealth ladder – introducing a political and social angle to what might otherwise be a prudential debate.

The UK’s embryonic macro-prudential

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ESRB narrows its macro-prudential tools

The European Systemic Risk Board is about to announce a slimmed-down list of potential macro-prudential tools, but who has the power to use them is still the subject of debate. By Michael Watt

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