§ 39. Mr. Richard Wainwrightasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will introduce legislation to require all United Kingdom banks to disclose their reserves and the composition of their foreign lending country by country.
§ Mr. MooreUnited Kingdom banks are obliged by the Companies Acts to disclose their reserves in their annual accounts unless they hold an authorisation from the Secretary of State under paragraph 23 of schedule 3A of the Companies Act 1948. However, none of the London or Scottish clearing banks now hold such authorisations. Banks do provide information about lending by country to the Bank of England which has statutory responsibility for supervising banks. This information represents just one of many aspects of banking risk, and in any event needs to be interpreted alongside additional information for example about guarantees and other considerations affecting the quality of individual assets. The publication of simple crude figures could be misleading.