Should UK banks be split up?

John Yakas, head of financials team, Polar Capital The benefits of such a move are debatable. On competition grounds, there is little to suggest customers get a poor deal (retail banking remains free for most, there is a range of service providers and margins are not excessive). In terms of reducing risk, the core concern is a retail deposit bank’s hidden guarantee against failure provides a “subsidy” to the investment banking/trading activities. The problem is it is not that simple to separate commercial and investment banking (what about wholesale funding/securitisations used to fund ...