Barclay's management are considering splitting the bank in two, to separate the bank retail branch network from the " casino" area of the bank, where the dealing rooms sit and the big money is earned, on the success of increasingly more complex trades.

Most banks have the same dilemma, having areas of the bank that started as small trading rooms, handling the placement of deposits and loans, then foreign exchange hedging, which show a good return, so gradually more and more sophisicated and complex areas are bolted on, exposing the bank to ever greater risk. Banks deal with each other globally so failure of one can cause the domino effect and bring about the downfall of others.

Barclay's traders are probably the first of a number to be exposed, rigging the Libor rates but they may just bring about the change in the nature of the banking environment that the goverment wants. A stable branch network involved in the bread and butter products of deposits and loans and not that much more, that would be immune to the sudden collapse of the global banking house of cards caused by the failure of a "too big to fail" bank.