Inside the Banking Crisis

Hugh Pym is one of the few leading broadcasting correspondents to have covered the financial crisis continuously since 2007 when the credit crunch struck and Northern Rock was crippled. He reported on developments in the summer of 2008 when the UK plunged into recession followed by the global meltdown triggered by the collapse of Lehman brothers. He covered the dramatic Government banking bailouts and was part of the BBC News team which won a Royal Television Society award for coverage of the financial crisis. Hugh has worked as a BBC correspondent since 2001 and stood in as Economics Editor when Stephanie Flanders was on maternity leave in 2008/09. Since then he has been Chief Economics Correspondent for BBC News, covering major economic and banking developments. Hugh is co-author (with Nick Kochan) of The Guinness Affair (1987), Gordon Brown - First Year in Power (1998), and What Happened? (2008). He has won Commentator of the Year awards from the British Venture Capital Association and the Business Services Association. Before the BBC, Hugh worked for programmes in local radio, BBC radio, and Channel 4 and was a correspondent for ITN and a reporter for Sky News. He was educated at Oxford University and is married to Susan - they have three children.

One of the gravest challenges faced by any British government in peacetime was also one of the most surprising and shocking to come to light. When the banking system came close to collapse, nobody going about their business in October 2008 had any inkling of how vulnerable the nation's financial infrastructure was. Nobody, bar a small group of policymakers and ministers working frantically in Whitehall and the City of London.Royal Bank of Scotland, larger than the entire annual output of the UK economy, had toppled. Banking giant Halifax/Bank of Scotland was in desperate need of a bailout. A staggeringly large bill had to be paid to stave off disaster, but could Britain afford it? Yet doing nothing might have seen cash machines closed, depositors panicking and troops on the streets. As political leaders in the United States confronted challenges to their own system, their British counterparts could rely on nobody for help. A solution had to be found and fast.This book is the definitive insider's guide to the UK banking crisis, the drama and the characters involved in the collapse of some of the major pillars of British banking, and the commitment of £66 billion of taxpayers' money. Newly updated to include commentary on post-crash reviews and the government's share sales, Inside the Banking Crisis is informed by conversations with highly-placed policymakers, including many of the key players from that time, and explains what really happened behind closed doors in Downing Street and the City of London.

New edition of the inside account of the UK banking crisis, featuring fresh interviews with key political and financial players.

The recent LIBOR scandal and ongoing court case, the establishment of a banking commission and the forthcoming debate surrounding an EU referendum illustrate how the topic remains high on the media/public agenda.

Introduction1. The Rock crumbles2. The Rock rescue3. Banks on the brink4. The financial storm breaks5. Britain on the brink6. Britain stands alone7. Battle for banking survival8. Banks struggle to rebuildTimeline