NO NEED TO STATE U.K. SUPPORT FOR SYSTEM-LAWSON
U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel
Lawson said there is more confidence in British financial
institutions than in U.S. Equivalents, so there is no need for
an official statement that the Bank of England will provide
liquidity to the U.K. Financial system.
    "Our institutions are in a stronger position, I think, and
the state of confidence is very much higher in this country so
I see no need for the Bank of England...To make any statement
of that kind," he said in an interview on Channel Four
television.
    Earlier a pledge to provide such liquidity from U.S.
Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan reassured world
markets.
    Lawson said the Bank of England also saw no reason to
provide such reassurance.
    The Bank of England had earlier declined comment.
    Analysts said Greenspan's pledge that the Fed would stand
behind the U.S. Financial system reassured markets that the
current turmoil should not spill over into the rest of the
economy through a crisis in a financial institution caught out
by heavy equity price losses and bond price volatility.
 Reuter
