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
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of f ...
. It was established in June 2010 and produced its final report and recommendations in September 2011.
Composition
It was chaired by
John Vickers
Sir John Vickers (born 7 July 1958) is a British economist and the Warden of All Souls College, Oxford.
Education
Vickers studied at Eastbourne Grammar School and Oriel College, Oxford. He graduated with a DPhil from the University of Oxford. ...
and included four other commissioners;
Bill Winters,
Martin Taylor, Clare Spottiswoode and
Martin Wolf
Martin Harry Wolf (born 16 August 1946 in London) is a British journalist of Austrian-Dutch descent who focuses on economics. He is the associate editor and chief economics commentator at the ''Financial Times''.
Early life
Wolf was born in ...
. The commissioners were supported by a
Secretariat
Secretariat may refer to:
* Secretariat (administrative office)
* Secretariat (horse)
Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989), also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred racehorse who is the ninth winner of the Ame ...
of fourteen officials seconded from
HM Treasury
His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and ...
, the
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the
Financial Services Authority, the
Bank of England and the
Office of Fair Trading. The secretariat was headed by
Sam Woods.
Recommendations
The commission made its recommendations to the
UK government
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on 12 September 2011. Its headline recommendation was that
British banks
Central bank
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom.
The Big Four
British banking has been highly consolidated since the early 20th century. Unlike some other major economies, the UK does not have a major stratum of ind ...
should 'ring-fence' their
retail banking divisions from their investment banking arms to safeguard against riskier banking activities, but it also made a number of other recommendations on bank capital requirements and competition in retail banking. The government announced the same day that it would introduce legislation into Parliament aimed at implementing the recommendations.
The text of the final report and recommendations is available from the UK National Archives.
Influence on banking regulation in France and the European Union
Mainland European scholars had recommended the adoption of similar 'ring-fencing' regulations, notably in France where
SFAF and
World Pensions Council (WPC) banking experts argued that such rules should be adopted in
European Union law.
- and the
Liikanen report in October 2012
on Bank Structural Reform had as its key recommendation a “ringfence” separating trading from deposits.
See also
*
Bank regulation
Bank regulation is a form of government regulation which subjects banks to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, designed to create market transparency between banking institutions and the individuals and corporations with whom th ...
*
Glass–Steagall Legislation
References
*
*{{cite web, title=Independent Commission on Banking: Final Report, url=http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/treasury-committee/inquiries1/parliament-2010/icb-final-report/, publisher=Commons Select Committee, access-date=26 February 2017
External links
Text of the final report and recommendations National Archives
Political terms in the United Kingdom
Banking in the United Kingdom
2010 in the United Kingdom
2011 in the United Kingdom
Separation of investment and retail banking