The Bank of England announced that Sir John Gieve would step down early from his job as deputy governor, in which he is responsible for financial stability.

ECONOMIST: Business this week | The

It also emerged that Sir John Gieve, the deputy governor in charge of financial stability, who came in for criticism for the central bank's poor response to the crisis at Northern Rock, will leave his job early, in 2009.

ECONOMIST: British banks

"The banks became very overextended, not just in lending on property, which we all know about, but in this case, for example, buying businesses in Mexico about which, it turned out, they knew too little, " Sir John Gieve, former deputy governor of the Bank of England told the BBC.

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