Sam Woods: Strong and simple

Speech by Mr Sam Woods, Deputy Governor for Prudential Regulation of the Bank of England and Chief Executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), at the Prudential Regulation Authority Mansion House, 12 November 2020.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Introduction

I am reliably informed that following my last Mansion House speech the chair of one of our banks was so enraged that I had spent ten minutes talking about credit unions that they nearly choked on their beef fillet.

This, arguably, did not advance the PRA's objective of safety and soundness. So it's a very good thing that this year the Lord Mayor has introduced new safety measures by removing all food from this event. You will, however, still need a strong dose of caffeine in order to make it to the end of my speech. I'm also delighted to join the Lord Mayor in welcoming Nikhil to this event. Nikhil and I have known each other for a long time.

I'm sure he will be a great leader of the FCA and I'm confident that with him at the helm the two regulators will continue to work well together.

Now, coming back to those credit unions - the reason for the chair's anger was that I announced that we would bring in a radical simplification of capital requirements for credit unions, but didn't announce anything on banks. Since then, we have motored ahead and put in place that new regime for credit unions.