Regulatory actions for short-term debt-relief during the Covid-19 pandemic are facilitating a significant level of indebtedness. We argue that regulators, in leaving the banking sector to manage small business and consumer debtors in ‘tailored arrangements’, risk allowing financial welfare goals to be unmet. Financial welfare goals are important to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) consumer protection objective and give substantive meaning to the long-term financial stability objective of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). Although the struggles with debt on the part of small and medium-sized businesses and households are not capable of complete resolution by financial regulators, who are constrained by their statutory mandates, we argue that the PRA and FCA should establish a coordinated supervisory framework of ‘tailored supervision’ for banks’ ‘tailored arrangements’ with their debtors. This proposal allows both regulators to address to an extent the needs of unsophisticated post-pandemic debtors and meet their objectives in a joined-up and holistic manner.

在 Covid-19 大流行期间为短期债务减免而采取的监管行动正在促进大量债务。我们认为，监管机构让银行业以“量身定制的安排”管理小企业和消费者债务人，可能会导致金融福利目标无法实现。金融福利目标对金融行为监管局 (FCA) 的消费者保护目标很重要，并对审慎监管局 (PRA) 的长期金融稳定目标具有实质性意义。尽管金融监管机构无法完全解决中小型企业和家庭的债务问题，金融监管机构受到其法定授权的约束，我们认为，PRA 和 FCA 应该为银行与其债务人的“定制安排”建立一个协调的“定制监管”监管框架。该提案允许监管机构在一定程度上满足简单的大流行后债务人的需求，并以联合和整体的方式实现其目标。