Phased shift to ring-fencing in Britain

Banks in Britain will have a "period of years" to adapt to the planned "ring-fencing" of their retail business from their corporate and investment banking activities, BBC reports.

In a preview of the final report of the Independent Commission on Banking, which will be released on Monday, the BBC's economics editor wrote that the commission is expected to recommend that the government should legislate almost immediately for big banks to put a ring fence or firewall around their retail banking operations.

However, the implementation should then be phased in over a period of years, though the BBC report did not say how many years the commission proposed.

In June Britain's government announced that major banks such as HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays will have to ring-fence their retail businesses, though the government has itself talked more recently of phasing this requirement in over a number of years.