Bank of England commissions three independent reviews on its role during the banking crisis

The reviews, which will be delivered to the Bank's Court in October, will consider the emergency short-term loans granted to certain institutions under its Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) scheme in 2008, as well as the Bank's framework for providing liquidity to the banking system as a whole. It will also look at the ability of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to predict interest rates and growth.

"The Court of the Bank of England believes it is important for the Bank to learn practical lessons from past experience in order to improve the way it operates in future," said Sir David Lees, Chairman of Court. "These reviews will be undertaken by leading experts and will focus on three key areas of the Bank's responsibilities."

The Bank said that the reports would pay closest attention to events in 2008-09, including the September 2008 collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers and subsequent recapitalisation of major UK banks and recession. They will not cover the run on Northern Rock and the early stages of the crisis in 2007, following a similar report covering that time period by the Treasury Committee in January 2008.

The reviews will focus on the operation of the Bank itself rather than fellow authorities the Treasury and Financial Services Authority (FSA) – elements of the so-called 'tripartite' regulatory regime.

"Court believes now is the right time to review both the Bank's progress in applying the lessons that have been learned and what further lessons there may be for the future," the Bank said in a statement.

The reports were commissioned following criticism from politicians and businesses that, unlike the Treasury and FSA, the Bank had not conducted an inquiry into its failings during the crisis. Last month its outgoing Governor, Sir Mervyn King, conceded that the Bank could have done more, telling the BBC that it should have "shouted from the rooftops that a system had been built in which banks were too important to fail".

Banking law expert Tony Anderson of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that it was natural to criticise the Bank for how long it had taken to announce its review, particularly given the progress of reforms which will ultimately see the bank take on substantial regulatory and macro-economic powers.

"However, this should be seen in the context of policies and regulation introduced to the UK since the crisis to support London's position as a global financial centre – policies and regulation which have been subsequently endorsed by the IMF," he added.

A new Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), based within the Bank of England, is set to take over most of the day-to-day regulation of and supervision of banks, building societies and insurers from current regulator the FSA from 2013. A Financial Policy Committee (FPC), also within the bank, will address wider 'macro-prudential' issues that may threaten overall economic stability, while a new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will handle conduct and compliance issues as well as consumer credit regulation.

The Bank of England provided ELA to RBS and HBOS around the time that Lehman Brothers collapsed in its role as 'lender of last resort'. It has asked Ian Plenderleith of investment company BH Macro to review its actions at this time, including the basis of the decisions made and the structure and terms of each arrangement. A further review, conducted by Bill Winters of asset management company Renshaw Bay will consider the Bank's Special Liquidity Scheme (SLS), which was established in 2008 to improve the overall liquidity position of the banking system. Under SLS banks were able to temporarily swap assets that were difficult to trade, such as mortgage-backed debt and other securities, for Treasury Bills.

David Stockton, formerly of the US Federal Reserve, will lead the third inquiry into the systems and information provided to the MPC to help it produce accurate economic forecasts to enable it to set monetary policy appropriately. Stockton's review will consider the MPC's predictions for growth and inflation since 2008 and the analysis and processes used to arrive at those figures. The bank said that it would use the results of the review to inform future decisions about its forecasting methods.

Both industry body the British Bankers' Association and the Treasury Committee have warned the Government that it needs to do more to strengthen the accountability of the Bank of England before it takes on its expanded regulatory role. Committee chair Andrew Tyrie warned earlier this year that the internal Oversight Committee, which the Bank has proposed setting up as a non-executive subcommittee of its current governance structure, falls "well short" of the independent Supervisory Board the Committee has proposed.