Rev Flowers row may be over by time City watchdog reports its findings

The remarkable Reverend Flowers is occupying quite a few organisations today.

The police arrested the former chairman of the Co-operative Bank yesterday in connection with a drugs supply investigation.

Read the latest on the arrest of the former Co-op bank chairman

The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) will be discussing him and the Co-op at its monthly meeting today – the PRA board includes the Bank governor, Mark Carney.

The Prime Minister announced he wants the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to investigate why he was approved to the post of chairman and separately the FCA is doing the groundwork for what might become an enforcement investigation.

The Co-op itself is investigating what went wrong and how to reform its structures.

That’s a lot of investigating.

Conveniently, all these investigations (there are five in total) allow each of the organisations to clam up – in order not to prejudice the outcomes of their investigations.

On past form it can take the PRA between 12 and 18 months to come back with findings.

By then, the fuss about Paul Flowers, his lifestyle and his roles at the helm of a Bank that almost collapsed may have died down.