The Future of Banking Commission
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The Future of BankingThe Future Commissionof Banking Commission 2 Commissioners RT HON DAVID DAVIS MP (CHAIR) David is chairing the Future of Banking Commission. He is Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden and is a leading campaigner on civil liberties. His former roles include Shadow Home Secretary, Conservative Party Chairman and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. RT HON JOHN MCFALL From 2001-10, when he retired as Labour MP for West Dunbartonshire, John McFall was Chair of the influential House of Common’s Treasury Committee. In January, he was presented with the award of Which? Consumer Champion for 2009 for his role in improving financial services for consumers. RT HON DR VINCE CABLE MP It was in his capacity as the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer that Vince served on the Commission. In May 2010 Vince was appointed Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills. PETER VICARY-SMITH Peter is the Chief Executive of Which?, the UK’s largest consumer body. Peter’s experience has been gained in both the charity and commercial sectors. He took up his appointment at Which? in August 2004. PHILIP AUGAR Philip is formerly a Group Managing Director at Schroders’ and now a writer on the financial services industry. He is the author of The‘ Death of Gentlemanly Capitalism: The Rise and Fall of London’s Investment Banks’. CLARE SPOTTISWOODE Clare is currently the Chair of Gas Strategies Limited. Her career started as an economist with the Treasury before establishing her own software company. Clare is perhaps best known for her role as Director General of Ofgas between 1993 and 1998. DAVID PITT-WATSON David is Chair of Hermes Focus Asset Management. He also advises civil servants and senior politicians on issues of industrial and financial policy. ROGER BOOTLE One of the City of London’s best-known economists, Roger runs the consultancy, Capital Economics, and is also a Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Treasury Committee. The Rt Rev Christopher Jamison (Abbot of Worth) acted as an advisor to the Commission. 3 Anticlockwise from top right sitting around the table: PHILIP AUGAR, PETER VICARY-SMITH, RT HON JOHN MCFALL, RT HON DAVID DAVIS MP, DAVID PITT-WATSON, CLARE SPOTTISWOODE Contents Commissioners 2 Foreword 4 Executive summary 6 List of recommendations 8 Chapter 1 Background 12 Chapter 2 Structure 22 Chapter 3 Regulation 38 Chapter 4 Culture and corporate governance 54 Annex 1 Terms of reference 78 Annex 2 List of witnesses 79 Annex 3 The Which? Big Banking Debate 80 References 82 4 5 Welcome from the Chairman David Davis MP We have established an independent banking commission In 2010, Britain is emerging from the worst financial crisis of our lifetimes, a manifestation of a deep-rooted and persistent set of problems. Banking is a structurally flawed industry that has failed its customers, its investors, and the taxpayers who stand behind it. The political and economic costs have already been enormous. to leave the taxpayer open to an unlimited assault on the public We have lost over 16 million jobs around the world. Banks have purse. The best option is to make the guarantee explicit and tightly had to write down $2.3 trillion of assets. circumscribed. The problem is even more important for Britain. Banking sector The Commission has considered some of the most intractable assets in the UK are five times the size of our GDP, a ratio greater financial problems facing our society today. Living wills need to be than the USA, Canada, or the Eurozone. When disaster struck in stronger to limit the taxpayer guarantee and reintroduce market 2008, the government stepped in to avert complete economic discipline. We need to resolve conflicts of interest within universal collapse. The financial crisis caused substantial damage to the banks, and the problem of banks that are too big to fail. The banking economy and the rescue cost the British taxpayer billions of pounds. industry has had a high degree of rivalry, but not enough competition Financial crisies are nothing new in human experience, certainly effectively to deliver good products and services to clients. Rather, not in modern experience. No financial crisis has been identical firms have taken advantage of market failures such as information to any of its predecessors, but institutional memory is short and asymmetry. We need a regulatory system that will reintroduce the individual memory is even shorter. Yet another catastrophe of our rigours of effective competition and market discipline to financial own creation has reared its head, and devising a comprehensive services. The possibility of failure must be real enough that banks solution has proved itself a challenge to our best minds. will manage their own businesses prudently. The formalisation of Each crisis has been bigger than the last, and without intelligent international accounting rules had the perverse and unintended and decisive action, the next one may be bigger than the British effect of reducing the requirement on accountants to exercise economy can afford. judgment in signing off balance sheets. As a result, one of the We can identify themes that played a central role in 2008: historic checks on asset value was undermined. over-leverage, mis-pricing of risk, misunderstanding of products, This is a complex, multi-causal problem with multi-part answers. and cheap credit, all concealed by concomitant asset price inflation Nevertheless, in this report the Commission has endeavoured and opaque accounting practices. In response to the end of each to provide a clearer understanding of the financial system, and asset bubble of the past two decades, central banks introduced to recommend that the new government implement practicable expansionary monetary policy. Instead of allowing several small solutions to the problems we face. market corrections, the cycle of monetary expansion fuelled one We would like to thank all those who contributed to the report. big collapse in 2008. A special thanks goes to those who attended the Which? Big Banking Banks enjoy an implicit guarantee from the government because Debate, to the many witnesses at the public events and to those the core services they provide are considered essential to the who provided comments on the report during its development. economy and to society, much like a utility. The political cost of another financial crisis would be so high that it is impossible entirely The Rt Hon David Davis MP to remove this implicit government guarantee. Britain cannot afford Chairman 6 Executive summary We established this Commission because the public’s voice has not yet been sufficiently heard in the ongoing debate about the future of banking. Our cross-party approach and the fact that we have heard from so many members of the public as well as banks, regulators and experts gives this Commission its unique perspective. All were united in wanting a banking system that is secure, profitable and that properly fulfils its crucial role in society. To date responses to the crisis have tended to focus on rebuilding the capital of the banks, to make them more secure. Yet what struck us is not just the problem of bank solvency. Rather it was the degree to which the financial crisis highlighted systemic problems in a sector that had, for a long time before the crisis, failed to deliver for its customers or for society at large. Putting more capital into the banks, and then returning to ‘business as usual’ is not enough. We need to build a sustainable banking sector, focused on delivering value to the economy outside its own financial world. To do this requires significant reform to the structure, regulation, governance and culture of the industry. Not too big to fail: Reforms to the unwittingly put their savings at risk through the misguided structure of banking actions of some banks in parts of the capital markets. The extent The first area of reform is the structure of banking. This should of depositor protection must be made clear and transparent ensure that there is no advantage received by banks or their to consumers, and individual depositors put first in the ranking creditors who behave imprudently. Where wrong decisions are of creditors. A new class of ‘safe haven’ accounts should be taken, they should not threaten people’s savings or the stability established with a 100% guarantee, but which would only be of the financial system. invested in safe assets. The government currently provides an implicit guarantee to We received powerful and persuasive evidence from expert banks to support the stability of the financial system and the witnesses in favour of restructuring the banks. The compulsory continuity of core services. This subsidy enables banks to reduce separation of banking activities has the potential to solve many their borrowing costs and run higher levels of risk and leverage current and persistent problems and the government’s new thus increasing the likelihood of taxpayers being forced to step commission should consider urgently and in great detail a in and support the banking sector. structural solution to the problems caused by large, integrated Banks need to be structured so that they can fail without banks. catastrophic damage to their customers or the economy. In any case, we also believe the UK government should, with An indispensable first step is the introduction of a system of its international partners, create a structure which addresses the transparent and public ‘living wills’ detailing how the collapse of conflicts of interest inherent in much of investment banking. a bank would be managed. These should ensure that within any To this end we would go further than the so-called Volcker rule banking group the core deposit and lending functions and the and seek a separation of investment advice from the execution payment system are ring-fenced.