To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will revise the procedures for providing guidance to the Bank of England about the production of a list of authorised banks; and if he will make a statement on the categorization used to identify differences in status of authorised banks.
[holding answer 19 July 1991]: The Bank of England has a statutory duty under section 17(1) of the Banking Act 1987, to publish in its annual Banking Act report a list of the institutions authorised at the end of the financial year. The Act also sets out in detail the criteria which the Bank is to apply in determining who should be authorised. The list published by the Bank does not identify differences in the status of authorised banks, except that UK-incorporated banks are distinguished from those incorporated overseas.