White paper on UK bank reform in 2012: BBA

UK white paper to outline strategy to ring-fence retail banks from riskier investment banks.

Britain’s banks expect the government to publish an initial white paper document next year,outlining how it will proceed with plans to ring-fence retail banks from riskier investment banks,said the head of the British Bankers Association.

Finance minister George Osborne will issue his formal response on Monday afternoon to proposals laid out in September by the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB),headed by Oxford University academic Sir John Vickers,with the government set to adopt in full the ICB’s plans.

We need to wait and see what the Chancellor says on Monday,but it is expected that his statement will start a formal process rather than conclude one,BBA Chief Executive Angela Knight said in a blog posting put up on the BBA’s website.

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In other words,after the Chancellor has spoken we will see some form of a consultation paper on both the ICB proposals and the Treasury view of them,and that the outcome of this process will be a white paper in 2012,she added.

The BBA represents the country’s top banks,such as Barclays,HSBC and part-nationalised lenders Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds.