On 20 May 1997, Gordon Brown — then Chancellor of the Exchequer — announced in the House of Commons that responsibility for banking supervision would be transferred from the Bank of England to a new statutory regulator (the Securities and Investments Board, which was renamed the Financial Services Authority in October 1997). This was enacted through the Bank of England Act 1998, Part III of which formally transferred the Bank's banking supervision functions (under the Banking Act 1987, the Building Societies Act 1986, and other legislation) to the FSA. The transfer took effect on 1 June 1998. The FSA subsequently became the UK's single statutory financial regulator under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Farage's characterisation of FSA staff as "tick-box bureaucrats" is editorial rhetoric, but the factual core of the claim — that Gordon Brown moved banking supervision away from the Bank of England and gave it to the Financial Services Authority — is accurate. One minor qualification: the Bank of England retained responsibility for overall financial system stability, so it would be imprecise to say Brown gave the FSA *all* "control of the banking industry." The supervisory and regulatory functions, however, were indeed transferred. Sources: Bank of England Act 1998, Part III (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/11/part/III/enacted); Hansard, 20 May 1997, "Bank of England and Financial Regulation" (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1997/may/20/bank-of-england-and-financial-regulation); Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 Explanatory Notes (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/8/notes?view=plain); Bank of England Banking Act Report 1997–98 (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/archive/banking-act-report/1997-1998.pdf); Wikipedia, "Chancellorship of Gordon Brown" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chancellorship_of_Gordon_Brown)