|
|
He insisted that this would not mean a watering down of standards if smaller banks had to comply with fewer, but tough, requirements.
“We have often argued in Europe for simpler approaches for small firms, but the differing legal traditions across the EU27 and the desire to harmonise regulation and supervision are powerful forces in the opposite direction. It is impossible to know at this stage, but under some Brexit outcomes we might have room to revisit this question for small domestic firms,” Mr Woods said in a speech on the fifth anniversary of the PRA gaining a secondary objective to promote competition among lenders and insurers.
Mr Woods said the PRA is closely watching the United States and Switzerland, which are trying to pare back rules for smaller lenders but insisting that they still comply with the so-called leverage ratio, which is a blunt benchmark of a bank’s ability to pay its debts, measuring equity against total assets.
The BoE and the Financial Conduct Authority have consistently argued that Brexit will not mean a watering down of standards. Mr Woods himself has said there will be no “bonfire of regulations” after Brexit, despite Eurosceptics calling for a more competitive regime when Britain leaves the EU.
Full article on Financial Times (subscription required)