Catalogue description Committee to Review the Functioning of Financial Institutions (Wilson Committee): Evidence Files and Registered Files (FI Series)

The Committee to Review the Functioning of Financial Institutions was appointed by the Prime Minister on the 7th October 1976 under the chairmanship of Sir Harold Wilson.

Broadly the review was to cover all those institutions and their associated markets connected with the channelling of savings in the economy. Among the institutions were the Bank of England, other banks, finance houses, life insurance companies, pension funds, building societies, and the Stock Exchange, together with the arrangements for export credit. The Committee's terms of reference were:-

'To enquire into the role and functioning, at home and abroad, of financial institutions in the United Kingdom and their value to the economy; to review in particular the provision of funds for industry and trade; to consider what changes are required in the existing arrangements for the supervision of these institutions, including the possible extension of the public sector, and to make recommendations'.