Bank of England (BoE) governor Andrew Bailey has called for interest rate-setters to focus on addressing inflation ahead of concerns over the general health of the global banking sector.

As reported by Reuters, in a speech at the London School of Economics Bailey stated that while there were "big strains" in the global banking sector, banks in Britain were resilient and able to support the economy.

"With the Financial Policy Committee on the case of securing financial stability, the Monetary Policy Committee can focus on its own important job of returning inflation to target," he said. “When we look at the outlook for inflation today, we have to recognise that the full effect of the higher level of Bank Rate is still to work its way through financial markets and the real economy.”

The comments come after the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and the sale of Credit Suisse to its rival UBS.

Following the failure of SVB and the rescue deal the BoE brokered to sell its UK arm to HSBC, global stocks lost around $460 billion in value.

Credit Suisse also ran into difficulty after its top shareholder - Saudi National Bank (SNB) - confirmed it would not be providing further capital to the Swiss bank.

SNB chairman Ammar Al Khudairy told Bloomberg the reasons for holding back on further investment were “regulatory and statutory”.

Al Khudairy has since resigned from his position at SNB after making comments which have been blamed for the downfall of Credit Suisse.

Credit Suisse was subsequently sold to rival UBS in a $3 billion rescue deal.

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