Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill

The Bill focuses on a crucial issue which was exposed by the financial crisis: banks are not like other companies. Banks are not just commercial companies their traditional lending and deposit taking functions and their custodianship of the payments infrastructure system means that they have a similar social importance as public utilities like water and power. As such, in any advanced economy, many of the functions of a bank must continue even if the bank itself does not. This Bill is part of the answer to how to protect society from losing the utilitarian functions of banks if the bank itself is in financial difficulty.

The Bill builds on the recommendations of the Independent Commission on Banking (the Vickers Commission) and on those made by the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards.