Banking report - Recommendations

The Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) has released it's findings this morning on the steps needed  to be taken to protect the UK tax payer against another Banking led financial crisis.

To summarise:

• Lloyds Bank needs to sell off even more branches to allow further competition in the high street. Lloyds are currently "assessing the full implications of the report and will provide a further update to the market once we have had the opportunity to review the report in detail"
• Ring fencing of the retail banking side from the Investment side, where the  high risk rocket science trading takes place.
• Higher tier 1 capital requirements suggested

Bank shares have responded positively to the report this morning at market opening on relief that the conditions recommended were not that draconian. Being major share holders, the Government can hardly recommend action that would devalue their holding in both Lloyds and the RBs group, so the commisssion has been treading a very fine line between what it might ideally like to recommend and what would cause the markets to drop UK banking shares completely.