Financial services regulators are unelected officials whose decisions have an enormous impact on our economy. Patrick Jenkins’s contention (“Politicisation of financial regulation turns increasingly toxic”, Inside Business, May 28) that there has been “political interference in supposedly independent financial policymaking” misses a basic point: regulators’ operational independence must go hand in hand with scrutiny and accountability.
Over the past decade, regulators’ remits have grown, and their powers have increased, but there has not been a commensurate rise in either scrutiny or accountability. Politicians on the right and the left in British politics are now calling for this to be addressed. Regulators should welcome this: effective scrutiny by, and accountability to, both Houses of Parliament will strengthen their legitimacy. The alternative — implied by Jenkins — is that independence should mean unaccountability.
Lord Bridges of Headley (Conservative)
Chair, Economic Affairs Committee
House of Lords
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Conservative)
Chair, Financial Services Regulation Committee
House of Lords
Lord Hollick (Labour)
Former Chair, Industry and Regulators Committee
House of Lords
London SW1, UK
