An EU advisory group will on Tuesday recommend reforms that could include splitting banks’ retail business from their investment operations to protect savers and host nations from the kind of risk-taking that triggered the financial crisis. Bank of Finland Governor Erkki Liikanen, who led the group of academics and experts set up by the European Commission, will announce their verdict on how best to reform bank structures in the wake of the crisis that began five years ago. Making a separation between retail banking and high-risk businesses such as trading could be among the proposals Liikanen will make to stop crises in investment banking dragging down high street banks and the savers and businesses who depend on them. Michel Barnier, the European Commissioner in charge of regulation, will give his initial response to journalists after Liikanen outlines the recommendations at a press conference at 1030 GMT. Legally separating or ring-fencing investment banking would make it easier for the part of the bank that holds savers’ deposits and lends to businesses to keep running even if other parts of the group collapsed, some banking experts say. It would affect European banks such as Britain’s Barclays, Germany’s Deutsche Bank and France’s BNP Paribas, which engage in high street banking alongside riskier trading in stocks, debt and other securities. One source familiar with the group’s work recently said separating retail banking from the high-risk business, dubbed “casino banking” by critics, would be part of the proposals, though this could change in the final report.
