But the lesson that if you want better options to deal with a failing financial institution they need to be put in place beforehand applies more widely than banks. 1 2  RLF would not be available to any firm subject to an insolvency or administration procedure. See http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/markets/Pages/money/eligiblecollateral.aspx 9  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  9  So we need also to think about whether resolution is necessary in other parts of the financial sector, particularly systemically important insurance companies and CCPs. These did not fail in the last crisis. But they may pose similar problems in a future episode of stress. Insurance companies are very different animals to banks. Insurer failure is more likely to be in much slower motion and solvent run-off may present a credible solution. However we need to think carefully about whether we can rely wholly on that and what, if any, systemic risks could arise from insolvency of a major insurance company. Given the relatively small amount of debt in insurance companies relative to policy liabilities, who should bear the losses in resolution? And what tools are needed to allocate them? The answers to these questions are not yet fully apparent, though in my view, the case is probably made for a resolution regime for insurers, if only as a precaution should it turn out that run-off is not enough. CCPs CCPs are also very different to banks.
Ten years on: Lessons from Northern Rock  Speech given by Sir Jon Cunliffe, Deputy Governor Financial Stability, Member of the Monetary Policy Committee, Member of the Financial Policy Committee and Member of the Prudential Regulation Committee  Single Resolution Board Annual Conference, Brussels Friday 29 September 2017  1  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  th  This month marks the 10 anniversary of the failure of Northern Rock. The failure of a middle size British mortgage bank was followed by the collapse of much bigger and globally systemic banks. But the picture of the queues forming outside the branches of Northern Rock remains for many the picture of the start of the financial crisis. Prior to September 2007, I knew of the existence of bank runs from economic history books, the experience of developing and emerging economies and the film of Mary Poppins. Seeing one happen in London brought home that it is never different “this time”. The fundamental basis of the financial system is trust. And trust, if not properly managed and protected, can disappear instantaneously. And once that happened, the UK had no effective way of managing the failure of a bank. And no way to avoid the taxpayer having to step in to stop such a failure leading to the loss of critical services to the economy and contagion to other banks.