Robert Peston claims to have unearthed some interesting information about the Tories’ intentions for UK banking supervision.

While Alastair Darling is steadfastly ignoring calls for reform of the tripartite regulatory system, Pesto says the Tories are preparing to shift regulatory and supervisory powers back from the FSA to the Bank of England

Given the FSA’s record, this might be a good idea, but where would it leave all the new supervisory staff the FSA’s been so vigorously sucking in?

According to the regulator’s annual report, released today, it’s added 177 extra supervisors in the past year. It would surely be a small shame if they were all emitted after the next election.

The FSA declined to comment, but fortunately this scenario looks unlikely. In one of his increasingly frequent appearances before the Treasury Select Committee, FSA chairman Adair Turner pointed out that when supervisory responsibilities went from the Bank to the FSA, the BofE’s supervisory staff simply swapped buildings. The same would therefore (probably) happen if those responsibilities moved back again.