Bank of England's Governor Says UK Unlikely to Face Repeat of 2008 Crisis

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey said on Thursday that the UK was unlikely to face another financial crisis similar to that of 2008, since the banking system was much more sustainable now.

The global financial system has been reeling as the United States got caught up in a banking crisis that began with a federal takeover of two commercial banks, Silicon Valley and Signature.

A study by a group of private economists has concluded that 186 US banks may have troubled finances that have not been reported, suggesting the banking crisis may be bigger than was thought. The crisis also took on an international dimension after renowned Swiss investment banking Credit Suisse went under last week and had to be bought by rival UBS.

"No, I don't think it's a repeat of 2008," Bailey told UK media. "We've obviously increased the regulation of the banking system since then. We've learned a lot of lessons on the financial crisis. We keep learning lessons. Of course, we keep learning lessons, that's natural in life. But I'm confident that the banks in this country are in much stronger position."

He also noted that inflation in the UK was expected to fall over the summer.

"We've seen signs of inflation really peaking now, but of course it's far too high. Now, we think it's going to come down sharply, really from the early summer onwards," Bailey said.

Additionally, Bailey said that the country's economy had been "on the knife edge" in February and could enter recession, but now he was "a bit more optimistic."

Earlier in the day, the Bank of England raised the interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.25% and stated its readiness to increase it even higher if inflation continues to grow. Annual inflation in the UK jumped to 10.4% from 10.1% in February.

In 2008, the collapse of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers became the largest bankruptcy in the history of the United States and led to a global financial crisis. The bank's assets were estimated at $639 billion then.