Bank bosses: Bit of a scrap

The bosses of Britain's biggest banks are often viewed as hunting in a pack, of showing too many of the characteristics of a cosy cartel. Not today, in front of the Treasury Select Committee.


On the proposal from the Independent Commission on Banking, that was set up by the government, for giant banks to put in place internal firewalls separating investment banking from retail banking, Stephen Hester, the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, said he feared that could actually increase the riskiness of the banking system and put up costs for banks and their customers (you and me, as if you didn't know).


By contrast, the chairman of HSBC, Doug Flint, said this so-called ring-fencing was required. And he submitted a proposal for making such a reform work - which would be to use current accounting conventions to put all trading activities into one part of the bank, and all lending into a protected separate....Click HERE to read more of this story