An Audience With

Bank of England director David Bailey: Cap on bankers’ bonuses was a bad idea

Threadneedle Street’s number two on prudential policy discusses government pressure to grow and why pay limits were a bad idea

‘We don’t just listen to the people who shout the loudest,’ Bailey tells FN
‘We don’t just listen to the people who shout the loudest,’ Bailey tells FN Photo Illustration: Danilo Agutoli for FN

David Bailey was working on JPMorgan’s derivatives trading desk when two planes collided with the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center on 11 September 2001. His boss was on holiday. Colleagues had friends and family in the towers. US markets tanked and stayed shut for days.

It was a watershed moment for a man who had barely finished the bank’s graduate scheme and would go on to become one of the UK’s top regulators.

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