Bank supervision gets personal as UK focuses on accountability

Regulators and politicians in the UK want bankers to be more accountable for mistakes made by themselves and their teams. But while supervisors are trying to expand the existing sanctions regime, politicians are seeking a more radical overhaul. Lukas Becker reports

Hours after the publication of a report by the UK’s Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards (PCBS) on June 19, a group of senior traders are – glumly – sitting down to lunch. One of the main planks of the report is a push for increased personal liability, most obviously through the creation of a new criminal offence of recklessness in the management of a bank, but also by deferring compensation for up to 10 years, and replacing the existing approved persons regime – a system through which