The Prudential Regulation Authority has decided that some large firms can be formally reviewed every two years instead of annually, proving that even financial supervision can occasionally put its diary on a sensible diet.
The PRA announced on 15 January that some Periodic Summary Meetings will move to a two year cycle from 1 March. These meetings examine risks at regulated firms and help set supervisory strategy. Regular discussions and ad hoc meetings will continue, so nobody is being abandoned with only a telephone and a vague sense of accountability.
This is a practical adjustment to work that deals with long term risks. It is also a direct insult to the meeting room, which had spent years believing that being booked every twelve months made it a pillar of the constitution. Its furniture is now considering whether it has any rights under administrative law.
“A shorter cycle does not mean less supervision,” said Crispin Ledger, Keeper of the Sensible Diary. “It means people can concentrate on risks instead of gathering every year to confirm that the risks remain risks.” He then cancelled a meeting called ‘pre discussion for discussion’ and became briefly visible through the window.
The PRA also plans faster decisions on some senior manager applications, new firm authorisations and internal ratings based model changes. It wants to streamline and modernise reporting through the Future Banking Data project. These are reasonable attempts to use resources better, although the Office of Historic Attachments has demanded that every improved form retain one unexplained box marked ‘other’.
Financial supervision matters because failures in financial firms can create serious risks. The joke is not that regulators should stop looking. It is that a recurring meeting can acquire the confidence of a permanent institution simply by arriving on time, carrying a folder and displaying a lanyard. Somewhere, a calendar is preparing evidence that it has always been a stakeholder.
By Thursday afternoon, the calendar had discovered its first empty space. It laughed, stretched its paper spine and prepared to enjoy a quiet week. The meeting room laughed too, then opened a working group to investigate why it was no longer the centre of the universe. The group has already scheduled its first meeting for 2028.
Source: Bank of England.
