Banks forced to ring-fence retail operations

The government is set to force banks to ring-fence their retail operations from investment banking.

The move would mean banks must be set up so that their branches and public savings and loans would not be damaged if their trading arms ran into trouble, the BBC reports. It is one of a number of changes Chancellor George Osborne (pictured) is expected to make in his annual Mansion House speech today. He will announce the privatisation of Northern Rock, the former mutual nationalised in February 2008. It has since been split into a 'good bank', containing customers' savings and about 70 branches, and a 'bad bank' containing toxic loans. The former will be sold, while the latter ...