City law panel goes under

The imminent demise of the Financial Law Panel (FLP) was last week greeted with anger by lawyers associated with the professional and legal think-tank.The FLP was formed in 1991 to create a discussion forum that could prevent legal debacles from dogging the City.

It relied heavily on the Bank of England for sponsorship.

The bank has now pulled the plug on its finances and it will disband in March.In a bitter letter to FLP members, chairman and former Master of the Rolls Lord Donaldson accused the Bank of short-sightedness.The FLP had a 79,000 funding shortfall - picked up by the bank - during 2000/2001, while a 99,000 deficit is forecast for this year.

Lord Donaldson's said these figures could 'on no view be regarded as other than small in the context of the scope of the work which the panel had been undertaking'.He said: 'I make no secret of the fact that I regard this decision as being wholly misguided and contrary to the best interests of the United Kingdom financial markets, and of English law as the system of choice in global financial and commercial transactions.'Bank governor Sir Eddie George hit back with a letter to members explaining that the bank could not continue to sponsor the FLP 'indefinitely and in an open-ended fashion'.Although he paid tribute to the FLP's work, and to the 'terrific job' done by Lord Donaldson and its chief executive, former Richards Butler partner Colin Bamford, he sent proposals for a new body to be set up, with an independent committee, but using the Bank's own secretariat for executive support.Rosalind Wright, director of the Serious Fraud Office, said she was 'very disappointed', and called on others to step in: 'The panel has been a unique source of well-researched and authoritative opinion which has been of immense help to regulators, practitioners and lawyers...

Could not the Treasury or the Financial Services Authority step in with the required (relatively minimal) funding?'Jeremy Fleming