ICB report: banks face higher costs, lower ratings

The final recommendations by the UK Independent Commission on Banking will require UK banks to significantly rejig their structures – a move that is likely to lead to higher funding costs and lower ratings for the non-ring-fenced investment banking arms. By Peter Madigan

John Vickers, chairman of the UK Independent Commission on Banking (ICB), didn’t mince his words. “Our financial stability proposals may increase some banks’ costs of capital and unsecured debt, especially outside the ring-fence. But that is largely a consequence of returning risk-bearing to where it should be – with investors and not taxpayers. This is a benefit, not a cost, to the economy as a whole, and will better discipline risk-taking,” he said on September 12, at the launch of the ICB’s