Last autumn, the Independent Commission on Banking, chaired by Sir John Vickers and comprising some of our most brilliant bankers and economists, published recommendations on how to do this. It’s vital that Parliament legislates to enact these proposals sooner rather than later. Regulation, resolution and restructuring of the banks are the three Rs of a new approach to make banking, and so our economy, safer. The three Rs will be central to the work of the Bank of England. And all of that will come on top of our responsibility for monetary policy to reduce inflation while supporting a gradual recovery of our battered economy. It’s the biggest challenge the Bank has faced for decades. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  We are up to the task. Already we see vested interests rise up to defend their bonuses and profits. But, as an independent central bank with over three centuries of history, we can resist those short-term pressures and take the longer view needed to prevent another crisis. Independence is, however, not the discretion to do as you wish, but the exercise of specific powers delegated to us by Parliament to meet a remit set by Parliament. So with independence come the responsibilities of transparency and accountability. Back in 1997, with independence to set interest rates, we revolutionised the openness of monetary policy. Our decisions, deliberations and even the disagreements within the Monetary Policy Committee are open to public scrutiny.
Mervyn King: Monetary policy developments Speech by Mr Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, on the 2012 BBC Today Programme Lecture, London, 2 May 2012. *  *  *  Fifty years of rising living standards came to an end with the financial crisis. As a nation, we are now significantly worse off than we were four years ago. The crisis has cast a long shadow. Of course, the immediate challenge is to get our economy growing again. But fifty years from now will our grandchildren ask why we lacked the courage to put in place reforms to stop a crisis happening again? I hope not – and that’s why I want to speak to you tonight about the changes we need to make. Believe it or not, it’s more than seventy years since the Governor of the Bank of England last gave a talk on radio in peacetime. In March 1939, Montagu Norman spoke to the BBC in the wake of the economic slump that we now call the Great Depression. Just listen for a moment to the 1930s version of Evan Davis introducing the broadcast: AUDIO INSERT: “The Rt Honourable Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England, speaking in the Empire Series on the City of London.” More the presenter of “yesterday” than “today”! In those days, the Bank of England, known affectionately as the “Old Lady of Threadneedle Street”, was a private bank performing the role of a central bank only by custom and practice.