Regulation

The long awaited interim report from the Independent Commission on Banking is out. Sir John Vickers and his wise band of commissioners have sought to resolve a key structural problem in the banking system that was one of the causes of the crisis: that the investment arms of universal banks were able to take large risks with money borrowed cheaply on the back of state-backed retail deposits from the likes of you and me. When the roof fell in it was the taxpayer, rather than other creditors of the banks, who took the hit. Read more...