Will there be another financial crisis?

There will be another and it won’t be the same as the last.


That’s a big problem because they can be very damaging.

A financial crisis causes so much harm because people rely on financial institutions every day: banks provide debit cards so we can pay for things more easily; pension providers help us plan for the future; and insurance companies provide cover in the event that our belongings are damaged, lost or stolen.

When a crisis hits, the after-effects can be felt for many years after. Looking at various examples throughout history, one estimate places the total economic cost of a typical financial crisis at around 75% of GDP. That’s equivalent to £21,000 for every person in the UK.

Take the 2007-08 financial crisis, which was one of the most severe ever seen. Some financial markets effectively closed. Others were so badly damaged that businesses and households were unable to get the finance they needed. As a result the UK economy suffered the deepest recession since the Second World War.

That led to a real impact on wages, jobs and access to credit for people across the country.

1 million - increase in the number of people without jobs

1 million

Increase in the number of people without jobs.

5% - fall in wages below 2007 levels


Fall in wages below 2007 levels.

Bank lending ground to a complete halt

Bank lending

Ground to a complete halt.

Where will the next financial crisis come from?

History tells us there are many different causes of crises – some more bizarre than others.

For example, in 1636, “tulip mania” took hold in the Netherlands. As the price of tulip bulbs went up and up, it is said that people spent their life savings to buy them. But this craze came to an abrupt end and the price of tulips crashed, causing huge losses and a slowdown in the Dutch economy.

No one can say where the next crisis will come from.

But what we do know is that the next crisis will be different from past crises: history may rhyme, but it rarely repeats.

How is the financial world different today?

The way we look after the financial system has changed. 

To reduce the chances of a crisis occurring, it is now the Bank of England’s job to:

Ensure that individual banks have sufficient financial resources

Individual banks

Ensure that individual banks have sufficient financial resources - in good times as well as bad.

Scan the entire financial system as a whole for risks

Entire financial system

Scan the entire financial system as a whole for risks.

What is stress testing?

The Bank also carries out “stress tests”. These involve looking at a range of “what if” scenarios – such as a sudden downturn in economic conditions – and checking that banks would be able to cope.

Bank of England's KnowledgeBank guide on stress-testing.

There have been other important changes, too.

In the event that a large commercial bank did go bust today, the Bank of England now has the powers to deal with the situation in an orderly way. Crucially, there would no longer be a need for the UK government to bail-out a failing bank at the expense of taxpayers. We also require banks to prepare for their own failure so we can use our powers as quickly and effectively as possible.

What does the future have in store?

The vote to leave the European Union in June 2016 led to a lot of uncertainty surrounding the future of the UK’s trading arrangements. The Bank of England cut interest rates and announced other measures to increase the amount of spending in the UK economy, which in turn will boost employment and wages.

The leave vote jolted financial markets but we have made sure that banks now have substantial financial resources to help them weather this and any future storm.

So the system is much safer today than it was in 2007-08.

But no one can prevent crises from ever taking place again.

It is the Bank of England’s role to monitor and assess the risks that are out there and to use the tools it has at its disposal to maintain a stable financial system.

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