Osborne must breathe life into financial reform

By This Is Money
Updated: 03:33 EDT, 14 June 2011

The Mansion House Speech used to be the occasion when Chancellors would demonstrate their monetary dexterity.

But with the grant of independence to the Bank of England it seemed at times to be an event without a cause.

Gordon Brown once used it bizarrely to signal his commitment to Trident, or prove to the country that he was not a defence softie.

The financial panic has, however, given the event new meaning for both Chancellor and governor of the Bank of England. It has become the Treasury's showpiece for setting out plans for financial reform.

George Osborne will step to the podium tomorrow evening knowing that the City is looking for some certainties. Almost three years after the start of the credit crunch in August 2007 there is still a huge number of what Donald Rumsfeld called 'known unknowns'.

Among the most important of these is the government's response to the Independent Commission on Banking which will produce its final report in September.

There is some irritation in Whitehall as to why all the focus has come down to how many branches Lloyds Banking Group will have to sell. That is why Osborne wants to give some direction, so that the process of disposing of these branches and returning Lloyds fully to the private sector can begin.

Similarly, there is absolutely no reason why the government cannot initiate the process of auctioning off Northern Rock. Paradoxically because of low interest rates and slow turnover in the housing market the so-called 'bad bank' (the rump of the loan books of the Rock and Bradford & Bingley) look to be a more profitable asset at the moment than the good bank.

Then there is the governance of the Bank of England. Osborne wants to see an early end to the transition which will see both responsibility for financial stability and prudential supervision shift from the Financial Services Authority to the Bank.

Confidence in the process has not been helped by the loss of Sir Richard Lambert from the financial policy committee before it held its first shadow meeting. So, Osborne's goal is to breathe life into the reforms before something slips through the net and goes badly wrong.

As for the economy Osborne will make it clear 'Plan A' remains intact and will likely emphasise that his use of the word 'flexibility' on fiscal policy at the IMF press conference last week does not mean any change in tactic. It is a repeat of what he said in his 2010 Emergency Budget.

Certainly, his strategy has won the endorsement of the IMF and assured that Britain can borrow on global markets at fine terms.

Given the current levels of consumer price inflation and high borrowing that is no mean achievement.

Ascot winner

It will be no problem for William Hill's chief executive if the favourites romp home at Royal Ascot this week (as they did last year). His thoroughbred is already in the winner's enclosure.

With impeccable timing, as Labour leader Ed Milliband launches an attack on the disconnection between pay in the boardroom and that on the shop floor (in this case the betting office) William Hill's Ralph Topping already has a forecast to cheer him up.

Coming in first is his salary which jumps to £600,000 and second on the card is a sweetener of £1.2m. The old adage that there is no such thing as a poor bookie looks to be absolutely right.

To be fair to Topping it has been an awfully long apprenticeship which began in 1970 and carried him to the very top. Since then he has had a number of victories including the conversion of William Hill into an online champion and some interesting bets on Nevada.

Nevertheless, shareholders who were ill-tempered enough at backing the loser at the annual general meeting are unlikely to take the latest loss lying down - even though the performance bonus terms have been rolled back.

C'est la vie.

Oh Ireland

Investors in the permanent interest bearing shares (Pibs) in the old Bristol & West Building Society might have assumed that their money was safe when it was swallowed by that grand dame of financial groups, the Bank of Ireland.

So imagine the shock when they received letters telling them to accept 20p in cash or 40p in BoI shares for each £1 of Pibs held.

And because Pibs are 'shares' the Financial Services Ombudsman is not very interested.

None of this is likely to instil confidence in those doing their banking with Britain's Post Office, where the Bank of Ireland provides the financial services.