UK: The Queen's speech - the Financial Services Regulation Bill

Today saw the State Opening of Parliament by The Queen. The Queen's speech - available here - set out the Government's legislative programme. A Financial Services Regulation Bill is proposed, the purpose of which is to give the Bank of England control of macro-prudential regulation and oversight of micro-prudential regulation: see here.

It's fair to say that the exact boundaries of responsibility between the Financial Services Authority and the Bank of England under the proposed regime will remain uncertain until further information is provided by the Government, not least because the terms 'macro-prudential' and 'micro-prudential' lack a precise definition and have changed over time. Further discussion of the meaning of 'macro-prudential' appeared in the March 2010 edition of the Bank for International Settlements Quarterly Review: see here (pdf).