June 17, 2009

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling will say that sharpening the judgment of bank regulators is the way to prevent future banking crises, suggesting an overhaul of U.K. rules governing the industry will be limited. In a speech to the nation’s top bank executives this evening, Darling will emphasize the need to improve the caliber of officials overseeing the financial-services industry and the quality of executives on bank boards.

“Institutions are important, so are the tools for them to do the job,” Darling will say in his annual address at Mansion House, the official residence of London’s Lord Mayor, according to excerpts released by his office. “To concentrate only on institutions is to miss the point.”The comments are the strongest signal yet that Darling, now finishing work on proposals to tighten regulation of banks, will keep the so-called tripartite framework introduced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown when he was chancellor a decade ago.