Even the most cursory examination of the UK Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) interim report might lead one to suspect that those responsible for framing it are themselves less than convinced of the need to ring-fence retail banks.
The report is not as emphatic on its proposals to ring-fence the retail operations of UK banks as it is on other areas such as capital requirements. Significant details regarding how the subsidiarisation would work in practice remain nebulous.
The Commission has yet to clearly define issues as important...