FINANCIAL Services Authority bosses will be hauled in front of MPs for the second time today to account for their role in the Northern Rock crisis.

Dec 11 2007 by Sue Scott, Evening Gazette

FSA chairman Sir Callum McCarthy and chief executive Hector Sants will face a cross party Treasury Select Committee in what is set to be another grilling over the beached bank and the credit crunch.

The FSA bosses received a mauling in October, which saw the regulator admit that it needed to improve its monitoring procedures.

Mr Sants and Sir Callum told MPs then that “lessons needed to be learnt”.

They revealed that Northern had not been deemed a “low risk” and was not due a full risk assessment until three years after its last one, conducted between December 2005 and February 2006.

Some members of the committee are said to blame the FSA for much of the regulatory confusion leading up to Northern Rock’s call on the Bank of England as lender of last resort. Also due to appear before the committee today is Loretta Minghella, chief executive of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which is charged with protecting savers in the UK.

The FSA chiefs and Ms Minghella are being questioned as part of the committee’s ongoing inquiry into financial stability and transparency, which is set to continue into next year.