Osborne to endorse bank break-up powers

The Chancellor will tell City traders that "lessons have been learned" from previous failures which led to taxpayers bailing out some of the biggest names in British banking. He is expected to endorse a major recommendation from last year's Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, which called for a reserve power to "electrify the ring-fence" if banks did not implement reforms. The Independent Commission on Banking, led by Sir John Vickers in 2011, had concluded that ring-fencing was the best way to protect "core" retail banking activities, such as their High Street operations, ...