Explanatory note

These Regulations implement the recommendation in the Report of the Bingham Inquiry into the supervision of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International published on 22nd October 1992 that a statutory duty should be imposed on the auditors of banks to report to the Bank of England matters which were relevant to the fulfilment by banks of the criteria for authorisation in Schedule 3 to the Banking Act 1987.

By virtue of section 47(5) of the Act, the effect of these Regulations is to impose a duty on accountants who are the auditors of authorised institutions or former authorised institutions governed by the Banking Act 1987 or are reporting accountants appointed under the Act to communicate to the Bank of England matters of which they have become aware in their capacity as such where they have reasonable cause to believe that the institution concerned may not be meeting one or more of the minimum criteria for authorisation in Schedule 3 to the Act and that the matters are likely to be of a material significance for the exercise of the Bank’s regulatory functions.