was a relationship to be sure but it was all very informal ; the terms supervisor and supervised would have sounded out of place. there were no hard and fast requirements and the approach was minimalist in style. for example, through the granting of waivers on the publication of balance sheet data. originally set up in 1914 to manage difficulties in payments between countries at the start of world war one. fforde, john. the bank of england and public policy : 1941 - 1958, cambridge, cambridge university press, 1992, p. 750 a short - term debt instrument issued by a company that is guaranteed by a commercial bank, often used to facilitate trade. fforde, p. 755 all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / speeches and yet, as in the 1890 barings episode, you can see in this activity elements which persist in supervision today. for instance, while i do not wish to offer any formal comment on the state of mark carney ’ s eyebrows, in my experience a meeting with mark is always a useful way to focus the mind. it is worth remarking that during this period there was a genuine window of opportunity to extend the boundaries of banking supervision undertaken by the bank and legislate accordingly. however, after a year ’ s negotiation, it came to nothing and instead of a banking act 1957, the banking sector would have to wait until 1979 before the bank involved itself more formally in the affairs of firms and, crucially, on a statutory basis. in the period up to the 1970s, there had been ‘ no recent case of depositors losing their money. there was little public interest in the subject and there had been no troubles that might have led to a demand for the bank ’ s help ’. this set of circumstances changed abruptly when the secondary banking crisis engulfed the city in the period 1973 - 5. in short, very rapid and uncontrolled growth in the fringe ( i. e. not primary ) banking sector came home to roost when the first oil shock hit in 1973, delivering a blow to the economic prosperity enjoyed by the uk since world war ii, reducing the value of bank assets and revealing a significant mismatch of borrowings and lending that resulted in a liquidity, and subsequently solvency, crisis. the secondary banks were especially affected, having been able to expand their balance sheets rapidly using wholesale markets, much as northern rock did just over thirty years later. the number of affected

study of the uk, usa and japan. hants, edward elgar publishing, 1993. hall, maximilian, j. b. handbook of banking regultation and supervision, hertfordshire, woodhead faulkner, hansard : http : / / hansard. millbanksystems. com / commons / 1997 / may / 20 / bank - of - england - and - financialregulation kynaston, david. city of london : the history, london, vintage books, 2012. moran, michael. the politics of banking, london, macmillan, 1984. osborne, george. speech by the chancellor of the exchequer, mansion house ( 16 june 2010 ) : https : / / www. gov. uk / government / speeches / speech - by - the - chancellor - of - the - exchequer - rt - hon - georgeosborne - mp - at - mansion - house plantin, g. and rochet, jc. when insurers go bust, princeton, princeton university press, 2007. putnis, jan ( ed ). the banking regulation review, london, law business research, 2016. roberts, richard. ‘ did anyone learn anything from the equitable life? lessons and learning from financial crises ’, institute of contemporary british history ( icbh ) king ’ s college london, september 2012. thoyts, rob. insurance theory and practice, oxford, routledge, 2010. young, john. a practioner ’ s guide to the regulation of insurance. london, sweet & maxwell, 2011. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / speeches