United Kingdom banking law

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United Kingdom banking law refers to

banking law in the United Kingdom, to control the activities of banks
.

History

UK's central bank, influencing interest rates paid by private banks, to achieve targets in inflation, growth and employment
.

The

UK government and other private banks.[2]

The Bank of England could, simply by being the biggest financial institution, influence interest rates that other banks charged to businesses and consumers by altering its interest rate for the banks' bank accounts.

Bank of England Act 1998
.

Central bank

UK banking has two main parts.

financial crisis of 2007–2008
, but these proposals have not yet been accepted.

Central bank governance

Under the

Bank of England Act 1998 section 1, the bank's executive body, the "Court of Directors" is "appointed by Her Majesty", which in effect is the prime minister.[7] This includes the Governor of the Bank of England (currently Andrew Bailey) and up to 14 directors in total (currently there are 12, 9 men and 3 women[8]).[9] The Governor may serve for a maximum of 8 years, deputy governors for a maximum of 10 years,[10] but they may be removed only if they acquire a political position, work for the bank, are absent for over 3 months, become bankrupt, or "is unable or unfit to discharge his functions as a member".[11] This makes removal hard, and potentially a court review. A sub-committee of directors sets pay for all directors,[12] rather than a non-conflicted body like Parliament
.

Interest rates

The

repos") or selling them, and giving credit to banks at differing rates.[15] This will affect the interest rate banks charge by influencing the quantity of money in the economy (more spending by the central bank means more money, and so lower interest) but also may not.[16] Second, the Bank of England may direct banks to keep different higher or lower reserves proportionate to their lending.[17] Third, the Bank of England could direct private banks adopt specific deposit taking or lending policies, in specified volumes or interest rates.[18] The Treasury is, however, only meant to give orders to the Bank of England in "extreme economic circumstances".[19]
This should ensure that changes to monetary policy are undertaken neutrally, and artificial booms are not manufactured before an election.

Private bank oversight

Private bank governance

See also:
UK company law
The largest UK banks are HSBC, Barclays, NatWest and Lloyds Bank.

Outside the central bank, banks are mostly run as profit-making corporations, without meaningful representation for customers. This means, the standard rules in the Companies Act 2006 apply.

Directors and shareholders

Directors are usually appointed by existing directors in the

asset managers, exercising votes with other people's money that comes through pensions, life insurance or mutual funds, who are meant to engage with boards,[23] but have few explicit channels to represent the ultimate investors.[24] Asset managers rarely sue for breach of directors' duties (for negligence or conflicts of interest), through derivative claims.[25]

Concerns about "short-termism" have been written about by the

institutional investors
, and asset managers who vote with other people's money.

Employee rights

Since the Credit Institutions Directive 2013,[26] there are some added governance requirements beyond the general framework: for example, duties of directors must be clearly defined, and there should be a policy on board diversity to ensure gender and ethnic balance. If the UK had employee representation on boards, there would also be a requirement for at least one employee to sit on the remuneration committee, but this step has not yet been taken. The Credit Institutions Directive 2013 (2013/36/EU article 95 states "If employee representation... is provided for by national law, the remuneration committee shall include one or more employee representatives."

Licensing and passport

There is some public oversight through the bank licensing system.

freedom of establishment
in the internal market.

Customer rights

HBOS-Lloyds TSB. The Banking Act 2009
contains a system to stop systemic crisis from banker insolvency.

While banks perform an essential economic function, supported by public institutions, the rights of bank customers have generally been limited to contract.

Customer accounts

In general terms and conditions, customers receive very limited protection. The Consumer Credit Act 1974 sections 140A to 140D prohibit unfair credit relationships, including extortionate interest rates. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 sections 62 to 65 prohibit terms that create contrary to good faith, create a significant imbalance, but the courts have not yet used these rules in a meaningful way for consumers.[29] Most importantly, since Foley v Hill the courts have held customers who deposit money in a bank account lose any rights of property by default: they apparently have only contractual claims in debt for the money to be repaid.[30] If customers did have property rights in their deposits, they would be able to claim their money back upon a bank's insolvency, trace the money if it had been wrongly paid away, and (subject to agreement) claim profits made on the money. However, the courts have denied that bank customers have property rights.[31] The same position has generally spread in banking practice globally, and Parliament has not yet taken the opportunity to ensure banks offer accounts where customer money is protected as property.[32]

Deposit protection

Because insolvent banks do not enable customers to recover their money as a property right (only contract), governments have found it necessary to publicly guarantee depositors' savings. This follows the model, started in the Great Depression,[33] the US set up the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, to prevent bank runs. In 2017, the UK guaranteed deposits up to £85,000,[34] mirroring an EU wide minimum guarantee of €100,000.[35]

Markets

Insolvency

See also:
UK insolvency law, 2008 United Kingdom bank rescue package, and 2009 United Kingdom bank rescue package

Because of the knock-on consequences of any bank failure, because bank debts are locked into a network of international finance, government has found it practically necessary to prevent banks going insolvent. This system began with the Banking (Special Provisions) Act 2008, emergency legislation for the nationalisation of Northern Rock, which was recast the following year. Under the Banking Act 2009 if a bank is going into insolvency, the government may (and usually will if "the stability of the financial systems" is at stake) pursue one of three "stabilisation options".[36] The Bank of England will either try to ensure the failed bank is sold onto another private sector purchaser, set up a subsidiary company to run the failing bank's assets (a "bridge-bank"), or for the UK Treasury to directly take shares in "temporary public ownership". This will wipe out the shareholders, but will keep creditors' claims intact.

All other standard rules of the

Company Director Disqualification Act 1986
.

Capital requirements

One fashionable method to prevent bank insolvencies, following the "

Basel Committee
of banks advocates it.

Competition law

See also

Notes

  1. ^ 5 & 6 Will & Mar c 20.
  2. ^ EP Ellinger, E Lomnicka and CVM Hare, Ellinger’s Modern Banking Law (5th edn 2011) ch 2, 30
  3. ^ So, if the Bank of England raised its interest rate for Barings Bank's account with it, Barings would probably try to raise its interest rates for customers with Barings Bank accounts (unless competition was very tight, in which case its profits would have to be reduced).
  4. Overend, Gurney and Co
  5. ^ See EP Ellinger, E Lomnicka and CVM Hare, Ellinger's Modern Law of Banking (2011) chs 1-2 and 5
  6. equity capital
    finance, where an investor buys shares, invariably with voting rights, in a company. Debt finance usually keeps the borrower in control of their business, subject to any restrictive covenants and the need to repay the debt.
  7. CJEU: ECB Statute arts 10-11
    .
  8. ^ See 'Court of Directors' on bankofengland.co.uk
  9. BEA 1998
    s 1A allows the Treasury to add directors, or reduce the number of directors, after consultation, with some limitations.
  10. BEA 1998
    Sch 1, paras 1-2
  11. BEA 1998
    Sch 1, paras 7-8
  12. BEA 1998
    Sch 1, paras 14
  13. TFEU art 9, and see also 127 and 119-150 the EU should aim at a "high level of employment". By contrast TEU art 3(3) says it should be ‘aiming at full employment’. See M Roth, ‘Employment as a Goal of Monetary Policy of the European Central Bank’ (2015) ssrn.com
    .
  14. ^ R Cranston, Principles of Banking Law (2002) 121-122
  15. outright monetary transactions
    to buy Greek government debt on secondary markets (to support the euro) was lawful.
  16. ^ Cranston (2002) 121, ‘This will typically, in turn, produce a change in the base rates of the banks.’
  17. BEA 1946
    s 4(3). No order has been issued, but banks generally comply with the Bank of England's suggested reserve ratios. Cranston (2002) 121, ‘The size of the reserves clearly determines the volume of money in circulation and the extent to which a bank can itself extend credit to its customers.’
  18. ^ See Monetary Control (1980) Cmnd 7858.
  19. BEA 1998
    s 19
  20. UK Corporate Governance Code 2016
    section B
  21. ^ Companies Act 2006 ss 168-9
  22. UK Corporate Governance Code 2016
    section D
  23. UK Corporate Governance Code 2016
    , section E
  24. ^ See E McGaughey, 'Does corporate governance exclude the ultimate investor?' (2016) Journal of Corporate Law Studies
  25. ^ Companies Act 2006 ss 170-77, 260-263
  26. ^ 2013/36/EU arts 88-96
  27. FSMA 2000 ss 19-23 and 418-9, the Banking Act 1979
    introduced the formal authorisation requirements.
  28. Credit Institutions Directive
    2013/36/EU arts 8-14
  29. ^ See Office of Fair Trading v Abbey National plc [2009] UKSC 6 and Director General of Fair Trading v First National Bank plc [2001] UKHL 52
  30. ^ (1848) 2 HLC 28
  31. ^ Vincent v Trustee Savings Banks Central Board [1986] 1 WLR 1077, denying that the Trustee Savings Bank customers were, despite the name of the bank, in any trustee-beneficiary relation, either at common law or under statute. The customers, apparently, only had contractual rights.
  32. ^ See the Safety Deposit Current Accounts Bill 2008 cls 1-2, proposing a proprietary saving account option.
  33. Banking Act of 1933
  34. ^ Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 ss 214-215
  35. ^ See the Deposit Guarantee Directive 2014/49/EU
  36. ^ See Banking Act 2009 ss 1, 7-13
  37. ^ (EU) No 575/2013, arts 114-134

References

  • EP Ellinger, E Lomnicka and CVM Hare, Ellinger's Modern Law of Banking (2011)
  • E McGaughey, Principles of Enterprise Law: the Economic Constitution and Human Rights (Cambridge UP 2022) ch 10
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