Almost a decade after the financial crisis of 2008-9, HM Treasury has decided to open an inquiry into regulatory policy that led to the Co-Op Bank's near-collapse. The Prudential Regulation Authority, the regulator to which it has given the job, has chosen the safest pair of hands it can find to produce the eventual report.

The chairman of the inquiry will be a Canadian called Mark Zelmer, who was previously the deputy superintendent of financial institutions at the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, Canada’s main insurance regulator, and the head of financial stability at the Bank of Canada, and, from October 2016 onwards, a PRA senior advisor.

John Glen, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, recently expressed his enthusiasm for the inquiry: "We are committed to creating a stronger and safer banking system. A vital part of this is ensuring that our regulatory system can learn from past events. The launch of this independent review is a further demonstration of this commitment."

The inquiry will look at the way in which the old Financial Services Authority handled the crisis which led to and followed the discovery in 2013 of a £1½ billion black hole in the Co-Op's finances. Its remit will cover the years 2008-13. Clive Adamson, the head of supervision at the old regulator (and later at the Financial Conduct Authority) approved the disastrous appointment of the financially incompetent Rev Paul Flowers, the 'crystal Methodist', as chairman of the Co-Op Bank in 2009. Flowers then presided over the disaster while on cocaine and ketamine. The FCA recently banned Flowers from financial services.

Because the PRA and the FCA are the only two spin-offs from the FSA, the PRA will, in effect, be conducting an inquiry into itself.