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 The governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, is being grilled over his handling of the Northern Rock crisis.
Mr King is facing questions from the House of Commons treasury select committee, with the focus being on the financial difficulties being experienced as part of the global credit crunch.
Northern Rock approached the Bank for an emergency loan because it was having difficulties with liquidity.
News of this led to a run on the bank, with customers queuing for hours to withdraw their money as panic took hold.
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Mr King has been criticised for his handling of the affair, particularly for not stepping in earlier to save Northern Rock.
Today, while being questioned, he said that it would have been "irresponsible" to step in earlier and save the bank and said that the U-turn on that decision came about when it became clear that Northern Rock could run out of money.
He went on to slam the current legislation which regulates banking, saying: "The interaction between different pieces of unconnected legislation made it almost impossible for us to act as a lender of last resort in the way that I would prefer," he said.
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