Occupy was right: BoE senior executive

The Occupy movement received a verbal ceritificate of good intention from an unlikely source last night, with a senior executive at the Bank of England (BoE) crediting it with stirring a ''reformation of finance''.

In an unreserved approbation of the achievements of the movement, Andrew Haldane, executive director of BoE's financial stability, said Occupy protesters had been ''both loud and persuasive'', and had attracted public support because ''they are right''.

''Some have suggested … that Occupy's voice has been loud but vague, long on problems, short on solutions. Others have argued that the fault-lines in the global financial system, which chasmed during the crisis, are essentially unaltered, that reform has failed,'' Haldane said in a speech last night.

''I wish to argue that both are wrong – that Occupy's voice has been both loud and persuasive and that policymakers have listened and are acting in ways which will close those fault-lines. In fact, I want to argue that we are in the early stages of a reformation of finance, a reformation which Occupy has helped stir.''

Haldane who was speaking at an Occupy Economics event in central London, said that Occupy had been ''successful in its efforts to popularise the problems of the global financial system for the simple reason that they were right.

He added that protesters camping near St Paul's Catherdal in London and across several cities including New York,''touched a moral nerve in pointing to growing inequities in the allocation of wealth''.