Call for bank break-up to limit powers

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) should be broken up and the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS reversed as part of a radical move to end the "comfortable oligopoly" of the country's high street banks.

The report, by a group of 29 high profile Conservative MPs called the Free Enterprise Group, also recommends the development of a new system that would allow customers to switch between banks with the "click of a button" in order to drive up standards, according to the Times. In the first of a series of papers aimed at putting pressure on the leadership, the group, which includes Treasury Select Committee chair Andrew Tyrie, calls on the prime minister and chancellor George Osborne to limit the huge power of a handful of banks. As well as action on RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, in whi...