The Bank of England has finally confirmed it will house its new banking regulation wing, the Prudential Regulation Authority, at 20 Moorgate (here’s a pic for those interested), a a few minutes’ walk from head office.

The Bank, keen for the PRA’s staff of 1,100 to be housed close to its Threadneedle Street headquarters in the City of London, will no doubt be pleased.

Perhaps less so the British taxpayer, left to foot the bill for a significant increase in rent.

According to research by CB Richard Ellis, a commercial property adviser, office rents in the City are more than a third higher than in Canary Wharf – the PRA’s current home – which is a 12-minute train ride away. Read more

Banque de France governor Christian Noyer might have failed to assure credit rating agencies that it was Britain, not France, that should see its triple-A status removed.

But in the latest issue of the French central bank’s well-respected annual Financial Stability Review, there are a series of articles that make a convincing case for the UK having returned to an era of financial repression, not seen since the decades following the second World War.

Financial repression describes a situation where governments ensure the yields on their debt are kept artificially low by encouraging domestic banks to hold their bonds, either through financial regulation or other policies which affect the cost of credit, such as monetary policy. Unsurprisingly, such “repression” tends to become more common when debt-to-GDP ratios soar.

It also might go some way to explaining why the UK has remained in the rating agencies’ good books. Read more