LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor MarkCarney and other members of the Bank's Financial PolicyCommittee appeared before the Treasury Select Committee inBritain's parliament on Wednesday.
Highlights of their comments are below.
ON THE BASEL LEVERAGE RATIO FOR BANKS
"Our intention is to fully implement it. We have to see howEurope translates this into European regulation ... we wouldconsider adjustments, I don't want to speak for the committee,but my personal view is we would consider adjustments in calibration as opposed to definition."
ON THE 3 PCT LEVERAGE LEVEL IN THE BASEL DEAL
"The presumption is ... that it will be at least 3 percent,I think that is a reasonable presumption, at least 3 percent. Aswe apply this definition in the UK ... we will give thought tocalibration .... and I have indicated in the past my personal, Iam not speaking for the committee, but my personal inclinationis that we would gross up, not jack up, but gross up whateverthe base level is for a ring-fenced bank and for systemic banksin order to ensure that leverage ratio fully performs itsfunction."
CARNEY, ASKED IF LENDERS WILL HIT A "BRICK WALL" ON EXPIRYOF FUNDING FOR LENDING SCHEME
"I would say no. Our observations are that fundingconditions for commercial lenders are very strong. And secondly,what the FLS was becoming relative to its original spirit - toget funding costs down from extreme levels and support thefunding market - to be consistent with that spirit, it wouldbecome a backstop-type facility, something that banks wouldwithdraw in the event of disruptions to funding markets."
CARNEY ON BANK SIZE
"Just breaking up an institution doesn't necessarily createa viable or more intensive competitive structure."
CARNEY, ASKED IF HE AGREES THAT CRUDE BONUS CAP IS NOT BESTWAY TO CONTROL PAY
"Absolutely."
CARNEY ON IMPACT OF HELP TO BUY PROGRAMME TO HELP HOMEBUYERS
"So we are watching it, we do get the statistics around it,it is still quite a modest scale relative to the scale of theoverall market."
CARNEY ASKED ON RISK FROM COMBINED LOW MORTGAGE RATES, HIGHDEBT-EQUITY RATIOS, AND WEAK WAGE GROWTH
"Collectively they speak to some of the potential risks atthis juncture. That is one of the reasons, taking the interestrate point in isolation - and disciplined lenders are doing thisalready - that it makes sense to look at households' ability toservice their mortgage, not just at the current 2.2 percent bestfloating rate on a two-year fix on a mortgage, but actuallywhere that rate could be five years out."
CARNEY ON HOUSEHOLD DEBT LEVELS
"We look at a wide range of metrics of household balancesheets, household indebtedness, actual and perspective. As youcan appreciate, there is no one metric that is the predictor offuture financial problems. But I would say that while level isimportant, servicing ability is that much more important ... Rate of change, particularly relative to historic trends, tendsto be a better predictor, in terms of credit, aggregates andwithin specific sectors, tends to be a better predictor offuture problems than absolute level."