Overview
The Cost Benefit Analysis Panel provides advice to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Bank of England (the Bank) on the preparation of cost benefit analyses (CBAs). The PRA and the Bank are required to publish a CBA when making relevant PRA and Bank rules.
The PRA and the Bank have a statutory duty to consult the Panel on:
- relevant CBAs accompanying consultation papers (CPs) relating to rules;
- in some circumstances, updated CBAs that accompany policy statements (PSs) relating to rules;
- the statements of policy (SoPs) which sets out the PRA and Bank’s approach to the preparation of CBAs.
The Panel may also provide recommendations for how the PRA and Bank can improve their overall methodology and approach to CBA.
The Panel submits an annual report to HM Treasury (HMT) who will lay the report before Parliament. From 1 January 2025, the Panel intends to publish this annual report on the Bank’s website alongside the PRA’s Annual Report.
Why we set up this panel
The PRA is required to establish and maintain a CBA Panel under section 138JA of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. It exists to support increased transparency and scrutiny of the PRA and the Bank’s policymaking by providing regular, independent input into CBAs.
How the panel works
The Panel meets approximately eight times a year to provide advice on relevant CBAs prepared by the PRA and the Bank. The Panel provides feedback on CBAs before proposals for rules are published as CP. In some circumstances, the Panel will review updated CBAs accompanying PSs. The Panel provides advice to the PRA and Bank; it does not assure or audit the CBAs prepared by the PRA and the Bank.
CBA Panel key documents
Panel members
The CBA Panel is composed of senior financial services and CBA experts. Appointments of Panel members are agreed by the Prudential Regulation Committee (PRC), in consultation with the Financial Market Infrastructure Committee. The appointment of the Chair is approved by HMT.
Members of the Panel are external and are not employed by the PRA or the Bank. Independent members serve a term of three years and members employed by a PRA-authorised firm serve a term of one year, both renewable for one additional term by discretion.
Laurel Powers-Freeling (Chair)
Laurel Powers-Freeling is the Chair of Uber UK, Moneybox, Ripe Thinking Insurance, Cambridge University Health Partners, and Cambridge Biomedical Campus Ltd. She is a Trustee of Chapter Zero Alliance and a Fellow of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, as well as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, where she served as a Governor. Laurel previously held senior management and board-level positions at the Prudential (UK), Lloyds Bank Group, Marks & Spencer, where she launched Marks & Spencer Bank, and American Express. In her post-executive life, Laurel has served on over twenty boards as a non-executive director. Laurel’s first NED role in 2002 was on the Court of the Bank of England, where she subsequently served as a Senior Advisor.
Stephen Gibson
Stephen Gibson is an expert in UK regulation and regulatory economics with over 30 years’ experience of leading major economic and regulation projects across a range of regulated sectors including postal services, water, rail, aviation, ports, energy and telecoms. In 2011 he set up SLG Economics, a consultancy providing expert economics advice to regulators, regulated companies and consumer bodies. He is a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government in Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University and also a Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics. Stephen is the Chair of the UK Government’s Regulatory Policy Committee, director of RegWatchEurope, the group of European regulatory scrutiny bodies, and was a member of the Civil Aviation Authority’s expert panel providing quality assurance of the regulatory framework for Heathrow and NATS. Stephen is an economic advisor to Coram, a charity which works for and supports children and young people and supports Bowel Cancer UK as a member of its lay panel. He has previously been Chief Economist at Ofwat, Chief Economist at Postcomm, Principal Economist at Ofcom, Head of Economics at Network Rail and Senior Economist at Royal Mail, as well as Deputy Chair of Bowel Cancer UK. Stephen has a degree in Economics and Management Studies from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and post-graduate qualifications in: Computer Science (Cambridge University), Accounting and Finance (ACCA), Corporate Finance (LBS), Competition Law (Kings College, London) and Health Economics (Middlesex University).
Martina Garcia
Martina Garcia is an independent non-executive director of Haitong Bank and a member of the London Heathrow and City Airports Independent Monitoring Board. Recently, she was Director of the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation and a Global Practitioner at Strathclyde Business School. Previously, Martina held senior roles at the London Stock Exchange Group where she led the International Markets team, at HM Treasury where she was deputy-director for Banking and Financial Sector Analysis, and at the OECD where she led the Aid-for-Trade initiative.
Andrew Maclaren
Andrew Maclaren is an insurance and investment actuary at the Government Actuary's Department. He has worked in the public and private sectors as an actuary and asset manager. Previous roles include a secondment at the Contingent Liability Central Capability, independent consulting on Solvency II capital management, and head of UK equities at UBS Asset Management, where he was a managing director. Andrew is a trustee of two pension funds and an independent university examiner. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and the CFA Society of the UK.
David Aikman
David Aikman is Professor (in Practice) of Finance at King’s Business School and Director of the Qatar Centre for Global Banking and Finance. He is the co-organiser of the Bank of England Watchers’ conference. David has recently been a Visiting Professor at Keio University, Tokyo and an external expert at the Central Bank of Ireland. In 2024 he will be a special departmental advisor at the Bank of Canada. Prior to joining King’s, David spent 17 years as an economist at the Bank of England. During this period, he was seconded to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and was a Visiting Scholar at the Bank of Japan’s Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies.
Kristy Robinson (PRA firm member)
Kristy Robinson is a Managing Director in JP Morgan Chase’s Accounting Policies and Advisory Group and currently leads the team responsible for providing technical accounting guidance to its Commercial and Investment Bank. She has almost 30 years’ experience working in the banking and standard-setting sectors. Previously, Kristy worked for the IFRS Foundation, the body responsible for developing IFRS Standards. She is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and New Zealand.