HC Deb 07 December 1990 vol 182 cc214-5W
Mr. Wray

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the effects for the British financial system of the banking crisis and the collapse of the savings and loans companies of the United States of America.

Mr. Maples

The Government and the Bank of England have been closely following developments in the banking and savings and loan industries in the United States. The United Kingdom banking system is well capitalised and comprehensively regulated, and the US problems, particularly of the savings and loans, are the result of circumstances peculiar to the US which have no direct equivalent here.