A banking split

Blame Bob Diamond. Until the “unacceptable face of banking” (© the utterly acceptable face of politics, Peter Mandelson) was appointed chief executive of Barclays, the issue of banking reform was trundling along noiselessly in the background. But now it has spilled, violently, back out into the open. Critics of Diamond say that his very presence makes the case for splitting the retail and investmet divisions of banks – you can’t, they say, have someone who made their money via “casino banking” presiding over a high street banking chain. But the banks are warning that any such split would force them, and their tax dollars, abroad.  

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The government’s official position is stasis. The coalition agreement made provisions for “an independent commission to investigate the complex issue of separating retail and investment banking in a sustainable way.”