UK insurers may be given green light to make riskier investments

The Bank of England plans to slash the "reporting burden" on UK banks and allow insurers to make riskier investments without initial approval, as it comes under government pressure to ease regulations introduced after the financial crisis.

- Kalyeena Makortoff

Sam Woods, a deputy governor at the Bank who leads its regulatory arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), said the central bank had rowed back on rules that appeared to be "overcooked", suggesting they may have gone too far and harmed the financial sector.

However, Woods, who was speaking to the House of Lords financial services regulation committee yesterday, insisted he did not want to see a regulatory "race to the bottom".