Tuesday 2 October 2012

Vickers's Report - snippet

Scope of ring-fence

Which activities should be required to be within the retail ring-fence? The aim of isolating banking services whose continuous provision is imperative and for which customers have no ready alternative implies that the taking of deposits from, and provision of overdrafts to, ordinary individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) should be required to be within the ring-fence.

The aims of insulating UK retail banking from external shocks and of diminishing problems (including for resolvability) of financial interconnectedness imply that a wide range of services should not be permitted in the ring-fence. Services should not be provided from within the ring-fence if they are not integral to the provision of payments services to customers in the European Economic Area.

The Commission’s view, in sum, is that domestic retail banking services should be inside the ring-fence, global wholesale/investment banking should be outside, and the provision of straightforward banking services to large domestic non-financial companies can be in or out.

What this does is return banking to what it once was before someone had the bright idea of amalgamating all banks. What goes around comes around...

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