BRITAIN’S tripartite system of financial regulation – which divides responsibility among the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) – is totally discredited.

Today’s report by the Economic Affairs Committee tells us nothing new, but its call for a sharper focus on regulation is to be welcomed.

Although the causes of the financial crisis are many – with special mention for the profligate banks and the politicians who believed stringent regulation would stifle growth – everyone agrees that the UK’s banking supervisors failed spectacularly to see what was happening.

Despite clear warnings that the system was over-heating, none of the tripartite authorities lifted a finger until it was far too late.

The FSA was set up partly to allow the Bank of England to concentrate on monetary policy.

To be fair, the Bank does not have a great track record on regulation, as creditors of both Barings Bank and the BCCI would attest.

But the tripartite system which replaced it has been shown up to be weak and ineffectual.

The FSA was doomed from the moment it presided over the first run on a British bank in more than a century.

It failed to spot the dangers to Northern Rock until it was too late.

Now it is time to hand over to the banking experts With billions of taxpayer pounds propping up UK banks, it makes sense to have monetary policy and financial supervision vested in one regulator: the Bank of England.