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.

Composition

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 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

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.

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.^[4][5] - and the Liikanen report in October 2012^[6] on Bank Structural Reform had as its key recommendation a “ringfence” separating trading from deposits.^[7]

See also

• Bank regulation
• Glass–Steagall Legislation

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 (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) (PDF) (in French), archived from the original (PDF) on 15 February 2010, 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. . Archived from the original on 18 December 2012. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
6. Brundsen, Jim (16 January 2012). "Finland's Liikanen to Lead EU Group on Bank 'Structural Reforms'". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 2 January 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
7. "The Liikanen report decoded". The Financial Times. 3 October 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2017.

• "The Independent Commission on Banking: The Vickers Report & the Parliamentary Commission on banking standards". House of Commons Library. 30 December 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
• "Independent Commission on Banking: Final Report". Commons Select Committee. Retrieved 26 February 2017.

External links

• Text of the final report and recommendations, National Archives