The Bank of England has revealed that it had warned the British government in late 2011 to prepare for more banking bailouts at the height of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis.
The central bank's Financial Policy Committee on Tuesday also urged the Treasury to draw up "wide-ranging" contingency plans to deal with the eurozone's potential collapse, it emerged in minutes from the FPC's June meetings.
"In September 2011, the committee made an initially private recommendation to HM Treasury that its contingency planning should be as comprehensive as possible and include arrangements for recapitalisation, and the restructuring of bank liabilities in circumstances in which their survival was threatened," the minutes read.
The committee had been "concerned that conditions in Europe could deteriorate rapidly, with the potential to impact across global financial markets".
The FPC added: "Against that backdrop, it thought that HM Treasury should prepare for a full range of eventualities; in some especially severe scenarios, far-reaching solutions might be required and some members felt that these should extend to the potential write-down of some private sector holdings of bank debt."
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In late 2011, investor concerns were mounting that the eurozone sovereign debt crisis - which sparked bailouts for Ireland, Greece and Portugal - could spread to Spain and Italy, and potentially spark the collapse of the eurozone.
The FPC was set up to oversee Britain's financial stability in the wake of the notorious 2008 global financial crisis, during which the government rescued Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group in vast multi-billion-pound bailouts.
