Three Rivers District Council v Governor of the Bank of England [2001] UKHL 16[3] is a UK banking law and EU law case concerning government liability for the protection of depositors and the preliminary ruling procedure in the European Union.

The depositors had to base their claim on the intentional tort of misfeasance in public office[4][5] because in English law, it was not possible for the regulatory authority to be held liable for negligence in the exercise of its supervisory functions.

The delays and costs of making a reference were great, given the very small likelihood that they would have made a wrong interpretation.

Article 3(1) obliged member states to require credit institutions to have authority to operate, but BCCI had commenced before the Directive.

This case essentially establishes that the Hansard can be used as an external aid to statutory interpretation.