Bank of England experts to be sent to emerging economies to promote regulation

Experts from the Bank of England will be sent to 30 countries to help improve financial regulations for emerging economies, the government has announced.

International Development Secretary Rory Stewart unveiled the plan in his first speech since taking on the job last week.

The government will pump £6.1million into the scheme following pilots last April in Sierra Leone, South Africa and Ghana – where 30 mainly struggling banks were consolidated into ten stronger ones.

Speaking at the Africa Financial Services Investment Conference in London, Stewart said: “We are very proud that we can now work with the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, to bring officials from central banks in other African nations, together with officials from the Bank of England.

“The advantage of this is that this is not about consultants parachuting in, this is about patient long-term relationships between expert regulators in Africa and expert regulators in London working together, hopefully over decades, to learn from each other.”

Stewart also announced £31million will be invested into the Currency Exchange Fund to increase the availability of local currency financing in emerging and frontier markets.