Independent Commission on Banking

Composition

It was chaired by John Vickers and included four other commissioners; Bill Winters, Martin Taylor, Clare Spottiswoode and Martin Wolf. The commissioners were supported by a Secretariat 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 secretariat was headed by Sam Woods.

Recommendations

Recommendations 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, 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.

References

References

1. (16 June 2010). "Sir John Vickers to Chair the Independent Commission on Banking". HM Treasury.
2. (12 December 2011). "Banks face major reorganisation". BBC.
3. (12 September 2011). "Banking Reforms Must Work For Customers". Vanquis Bank Ltd.
4. M Nicolas Firzli. (January 2010). "Orthodoxie financière et régulation bancaire: les leçons du Glass-Steagall Act (Bank Regulation and Financial Orthodoxy: the Lessons from the Glass-Steagall Act)".
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.
6. Brundsen, Jim. (16 January 2012). "Finland's Liikanen to Lead EU Group on Bank 'Structural Reforms'". [[Bloomberg News]].
7. (October 3, 2012). "The Liikanen report decoded". The Financial Times.