Let’s split

Breaking up is hard to do. But that’s what should be done to the Financial Services Authority. The UK regulator is barely a decade old, but the time has come to split up its functions among separate agencies with clear responsibilities. The FSA has not had a good crisis. On its own admission, it missed the warning signs flashing at Northern Rock, failed to spot how banks had overextended themselves and did not understand the systemic risks. Under the UK’s tripartite arrangement, the...