Bishop joins banking standards committee

The Bishop of Durham has been invited to sit on the parliamentary commission on banking standards.

The Rt Rev Justin Welby has been added to the commission as a non-politically aligned member from the House of Lords.

The cross-party parliamentary inquiry is to look into the banking sector in the wake of the Libor rate-rigging scandal.

It has been tasked with considering and reporting on the "professional standards and culture of the UK banking sector, taking account of regulatory and competition investigations into the Libor rate-setting process".

The inquiry will also consider the lessons that can be learned about corporate governance, transparency and conflicts of interest, and their implications for regulation and government policy.

Andrew Tyrie MP has been appointed to chair the commission, which includes six MPs and five peers.

Bishop Welby commented: “I am very honoured to have been invited to take part in this important enquiry, which has an impact on all of us because ethical markets are essential to a flourishing economy, and thus jobs. The work commitment is obviously going to be intense, but short lived. Having started dealing in these markets from the oil industry side in the late 1970s, and with experience not only of Libor related instruments but also of a range of derivatives and many other forms of market, as well as being involved in the City of London through work on ethical investing in recent years, this is an area where I hope to be able to make a useful contribution."