UK banks will be forced to hold extra £150bn capital During his career Mr Bailey wound down London's oldest merchant bank, Barings, after Nick Leeson made losses of £827m on risky, unauthorised trades, nationalised Bradford & Bingley and bailed-out HBOS. Speaking to the Financial Times, Mr Bailey said that if he became the head of the new banking regulator he wanted to ensure that he did not have to "stare into the abyss" of any further bank collapses. He described the largest of these collapses, RBS in 2008: "The treasurer, John Cummins, came in and I thought he was going to have a heart attack... and he looked at me and said, 'I need £25bn today: can you do it?' I said 'yes, I can do that'. Mr Bailey said the PRA would follow "a different model of supervision" to the FSA, which had been criticised for its light touch in the past. It has to be focused because otherwise there is no end to it. I always say [to the big groups] that I've only come to talk to [them] about three things: I'm not here to make 25 compliance points. It the fourth thing blows the firm up... I take responsibility for that," he said. Around 200 PRA staff will work on supervising the 20 largest banks, a further 200 will scrutinise the next 80 largest and 200 will oversee 1,500 smaller firms. PRA directors will also meet directly with chief executives of banks and insurers. Mr Bailey will not discover if he has landed the job for which he is widely believed to be the favourite until the Bank of England has filled the position of new Governor, following the departure of Sir Mervyn King. He is already a Bank of England employee, but has been lent to the FSA to work on banking regulation and work on planning for the new PRA.