The Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) chief executive, John Fingleton, has spoken out in support of the investigation into whether the Big Four banks should be split up.
The Independent Commission on Banking is currently looking at options to ensure that a financial crisis, like the one we have experienced recently, never happens again. One of the options being considered is the breaking up of the Big Four banks to ensure that financial institutions can carry the burden of their own debt themselves, without having to rely on tax payer bail-outs.
The commission is looking at whether RBS, Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC are simply too large and powerful to behave as responsibly as they should. Regarding the breaking up of the banks, Fingleton said, "I agree that consideration should be given to it."
He continued, "I am not opining on what should be done. It is a question which should not go unanswered."
He added that simply reversing the merger of Lloyds and HBOS, which took place back in 2008, could be too costly and may not solve the competition problem that has emerged in recent years.
