The Business On: Sir Andrew Large, Financial regulator

Where do I know him from?

Sir Andrew spent a long period in the 1990s running the Securities and Investments Board, one of the antecedents of the Financial Services Authority we know and love today. More recently, he was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England with responsibility for financialstability. He retired in 2006.

An immaculate sense of timing?

Indeed. Sir Andrew had the good sense to get out a year before the worst financial crisis in livingmemory rocked the world. To be fair, during his time at the Bank he did warn about some of the issues that caused the crisis.

So how's life on the golf course?

Steady on – financial regulators are like policemen. They never go off duty. Sir Andrew has just co-authored a new study for the Bank. Published yesterday, it makes an important contribution to the debate about how to reorganise financial regulation in the wake of the crisis.

What does it say?

He and Alastair Clark, a senior civil servant at the Treasury, warn that for all the talk about "macro-prudential" regulation – policing the big systemic risks like debt bubbles, for example – precious little consensus has been reached on how to do it. The duo suggest some possibilities.

Anything else?

Yes, the paper includes a warning that the need for regulation has to be balanced against the importance of economic growth – that too much of the former may be detrimental to the latter. That will be music to the ears of some in the City.

Is this a job application?

It seems unlikely – Sir Andrew turned 70 last month and while he still has some business interests, one couldn't imaging him returning to the front line of regulation.

That's a pity.

Indeed, for Sir Andrew has the sort of experience we could do with just now. He enjoyed long stints at several investment banks but has also worked in industry and knows his way around Westminster and Brussels. Consultancy work beckons.