A former appeal court judge has criticised evidence presented by Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey over evidence he gave to MPs over a scandal in which thousands lost their life savings. In a report, Dame Elizabeth Gloster criticised Bailey for his role as the former boss of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in regulating London Capital & Finance which collapsed in 2019.
She named him responsible for the failure, and said he had made legal representations to prevent responsibility for the FCA's failings being attributed to him. Last month, Bailey said before the Treasury committee of MPs that he was “angry” by her criticisms, adding it was “not correct” to say he did not want his name mentioned in the context of personal responsibility. In response, Dame Elizabeth wrote to the committee releasing extracts of representations from Bailey's legal team, revealing that they had asked for him not to be named on multiple grounds.
Addressing the report, Bailey said responsibility and culpability were not the same thing. “I never said that I was not responsible for everything that went on at the FCA. That was my role as CEO. The particular issue... was that the first draft of the report introduced responsibility and culpability together in an inseparable way and they're not the same thing,” he said.
