UK Banks Face Major Reorganisation

UK banks should ring-fence their retail banking divisions to protect them from riskier investment banking arms, a government-backed commission has said.

The Independent Commission on Banking, led by Sir John Vickers, said it would "make it easier and less costly to resolve banks that get into trouble".

The ICB called for the changes to be implemented by the start of 2019.

Chancellor George Osborne welcomed the "good" report and said he planned to stick to the timetable it recommended.

"This commission has tackled that big question that we face in Britain, which is how can we be a home to successful banks that compete around the world, but lend to British families and British businesses, but at the same time protecting us as taxpayers from the cost of them going wrong, and not ending up with a multi-billion pound bill when the bank collapses," he said.

Quoted from the BBC News website