Bank of England is wrong on accounting rules, says Sir David Tweedie Sir David, who was chairman of the International Accounting Standards board for 10 years until 2011, has attacked the Bank's Financial Policy Committee (FPC) for concluding that accounting rules have allowed banks to "overstate profits." When Lord Lawson, chairman of the sub-committee, pointed out that the FPC was a "respected authority," Sir David retorted: "It doesn't mean they are right." He admitted that in 2008, the IASB recognised that banks needed to make more provisions. However, he insisted that it wasn't the rules at fault but banks and their efforts to get around them. He insisted that the standards, which he helped introduce into the UK in 2005, "could of and should have worked...we expected [them] to work... but "behaviourally it wasn't working." The IASB "moved quickly" to address the problems, he said. Sir David, who is now chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland (ICAS), claimed that bank practises that were frowned on in Scotland and elsewhere in England were "considered damn good business in City London."