UK banking regulators: lunatics at the controls?

When 'bank regulators are launching a new type of "stress test" that forces banks to consider unlikely but potentially disastrous scenarios like a flu pandemic or disruptions to the country's food-supply chain' (Wall Street Journal, 11 Feb 2011) one has to ask if regulatory creep has reached the lunatic stage. I wonder when banks are asked to plan for the possibililty of an asteroid impact.