Clegg and Cable to reconsider Vickers’ banking reforms

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and business secretary Vince Cable are planning to re-examine the Vickers’ report on UK banking reforms, the FT has reported.

Clegg and Cable want to assess whether banks’ retail arms should be allowed to market complex derivative products. The move comes after 11 banks were accused of mis-selling interest rate swaps to businesses.

Forbidding banks’ retail operations from selling interest rate and currency swaps was a key recommendation in Sir John Vickers report that ministers shot down in September last year.

“We originally decided to allow banks not to separate out derivatives such as this, but now circumstances have changed in the light of three recent major banking scandals,” one senior Lib Dem MP told the FT.

“This is at an early stage, but we want to open up a wider debate on banking reform, and this would be part of that.”

More on the story