U.K. Approach to Financial Crisis Management

National governments have been forced to use an extraordinary amount of public resources and techniques to contain the global financial crisis (“the crisis”). This Article analyzes the role of the U.K. Tripartite Authorities in dealing with the crisis - both the “ordinary” measures, such as the Bank of England's role as Lender of Last Resort, and the “extraordinary” measures it used, such as blanket guarantees, recapitalization, and asset purchase schemes. It evaluates the U.K. response and the challenges of this period of containment by comparing issues that arose from past financial crises. The Article concludes that the containment of a financial crisis of systemic proportions requires both an overarching and a case-by-case approach to deal with banks experiencing insolvency rather than liquidity problems