Pension funds would have collapsed today without BoE action - with 'mass insolvencies'
The Bank of England's intervention announced today was in response to a "run dynamic" on pension funds, Sky News' economic editor Ed Conway has been told.
If the bank had not intervened, there would have been "mass insolvencies of pension funds by this afternoon", he said.
"It's very similar in kind of wholesale terms to what we saw with Northern Rock when there was that run on that bank back in 2007," he explained.
"It's a vicious cycle. Essentially, people trying to withdraw money, which in turn sometimes leads inevitably to financial collapse.
"I am told there were a swathe of pension funds that, were it not for the government's intervention, would have essentially collapsed by this afternoon - that's how fast moving this crisis in the pensions markets was.
"It is the gilts market that lies underneath, that defines benefit pension schemes, all of whom are reliant on that market for their funding and for the structure of their investments.
"The scale of this crisis is now becoming clearer.
"We have seen a big reaction in those markets where the bank has gone and started to buy those securities, but it is an extraordinary day and an extraordinary event.
"They believe that they may have done enough now for the time being, it's a two-week course of emergency buying of some of these assets, but we have never quite seen anything like this before."
