Independent Commission on Banking

The Independent Commission on Banking was a United Kingdom government inquiry looking at structural and related non-structural reforms to the UK banking sector to promote financial stability and competition in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007–08. It was established in June 2010 and produced its final report and recommendations in September 2011.

It was chaired by John Vickers[1] and included four other Commissioners; Bill Winters, Martin Taylor, Clare Spottiswoode and Martin Wolf. The Commissioners were supported by a team of fourteen officials seconded from HM Treasury, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Financial Services Authority, the Bank of England and the Office of Fair Trading.

The Commission made its recommendations to the UK government on 12 September 2011. Its headline recommendation was that British banks should 'ring-fence' their retail banking divisions from their investment banking arms to safeguard against riskier banking activities,[2] but it also made a number of other recommendations on bank capital requirements and competition in retail banking.[3] The government announced the same day that it would introduce legislation into Parliament aimed at implementing the recommendations.

Influence on banking regulation in France and the European Union

Mainland European scholars had also discussed the necessity of banking reform in light of the 2007–08 crisis, recommending the adoption of similar 'ring-fencing' regulations, notably in France where SFAF and World Pensions Council (WPC) banking experts have argued that, beyond national legislations, such rules should be adopted and implemented within the broader context of separation of powers in European Union law.[4][5]

The Liikanen report or Report of the European Commission's High-level Expert Group on Bank Structural Reform is a set of recommendations that was published in October 2012 by a group of experts led by Erkki Liikanen, governor of the Bank of Finland and ECB council member. The "Liikanen Group" was moulded after the UK's Independent Commission on Banking: it was established in Brussels by EU Commissioner Michel Barnier in February 2012[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Sir John Vickers to Chair the Independent Commission on Banking". HM Treasury. 16 June 2010. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
  2. ↑ "Banks face major reorganisation". BBC News (BBC). 12 December 2011. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
  3. ↑ "Banking Reforms Must Work For Customers". Vanquis Bank Ltd. 12 September 2011. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
  4. ↑ M Nicolas Firzli (Jan. 2010), Orthodoxie financière et régulation bancaire: les leçons du Glass-Steagall Act (Bank Regulation and Financial Orthodoxy: the Lessons from the Glass-Steagall Act) (in French), retrieved 8 January 2010.
  5. ↑ M. Nicolas J. Firzli quoted by Marie Lepesant (11 June 2012). "Le Modèle des Banques Françaises en Question". Le Parisien Aujourd'hui en France (.). Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  6. ↑ Brundsen, Jim (16 January 2012). "Finland's Liikanen to Lead EU Group on Bank 'Structural Reforms'". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 14 July 2012.