ABSTRACT
It was inevitable that the banking crisis would come under the British parliamentary spotlight. The task of detailed examination fell to the House of Commons Treasury Committee. The Committee began work on this aspect of the crisis in late 2008 and published its report on 15 May 2009. Its chair was the former Labour whip and junior minister John McFall MP. The Committee's chair began by asking whether there was ever a case for journalists to exercise self-restraint and temporarily delay publication of a story especially if there was a risk of sparking off market. In October 2008 in what was to be one of the UK's largest nationalizations, the UK government announced that it would inject 37 billion into three UK banks Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds TSB, and HBOS to keep them viable as businesses. Government looks carefully about the disclosure obligations applying to banks and other financial institutions to see if further transparency would be beneficial.
