© Reuters
By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com — The recent volatility in banking stocks is a sign of financial markets looking for weaknesses, rather than a rerun of the last financial crisis, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Tuesday.
“I don’t think we are at all in the position that we were in in 2007 and 2008, Bailey told the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee. “The U.K. banking system is in a strong position, both capital and liquidity-wise, and is not showing signs of stress in that respect.”
Bailey was facing questions from lawmakers about the recent collapses of banks in the U.S. and Switzerland, which raised concerns in financial markets of broader instability in the global financial system. On Friday, in particular, European bank stock had sold off sharply amid concerns that Deutsche Bank (ETR:) and others may be too exposed to commercial real estate, a sector that has been hard hit by the sharp rise in interest rates over the last year.
“I think there are moves in markets that, if you like, test out firms,” Bailey said of Friday’s volatility. “I would not want to say that those in my estimation are based on identified weaknesses rather than testing out.”
He added that Credit Suisse’s woes were “an institutional-specific story about long-run issues,” rather than being symptomatic of the broader sector.
Bailey nonetheless warned that there could be real-world consequences from recent events, which have caused banks to pull back on lending. He acknowledged that “we see some evidence of some tightening credit conditions, but we do not see a critical development.”
Bailey, as with his counterparts in the U.S. and Eurozone, has acknowledged that tighter credit conditions could end up reducing the need for further increases in official interest rates, inasmuch as it will have the same impact on reducing demand.
“We always take into account credit conditions when setting monetary policy,” Bailey said. “We are in a position of very heightened…tension and alertness and we will go on being vigilant.”
Before Bailey spoke, data released earlier on Tuesday had underlined how little scope the Bank has for accommodating fears about banking vulnerabilities. The British Retail Consortium said that annual food price inflation hit a new record of 17%, tightening the cost of living squeeze on poor families in particular. Food accounts for nearly 10% of the Office for National Statistics’ basket of goods and services that make up the .
