What the Banking Commission report says about…

…bad bankers

The commission wants to encourage greater personal responsibility, through making it clear with whom the buck stops for each key area within a bank, and sanctions including a criminal offence of reckless misconduct in the management of a bank. The report emphasises that it would be rare to secure a conviction under this offence, but that it would apply ‘in cases involving only the most serious of failings, such as where a bank failed with substantial costs to the taxpayer, lasting consequences for the financial system or serious harm to customers’.

It also recommends that the PRA and FCA be able to put banks into ‘special measures’, where the organisation will make a commitment to address concerns identified by the regulator. A bank in special measures would receive intensive and frequent monitoring from the regulators.

There was an ‘accountability firewall’, the report says, between those in supervisory or leadership roles and those on the frontline guilty of misconduct.

…money

As part of this desire for increased personal responsibility, and given public anger at high pay for poor performance, the commission wants remuneration packages to encourage a long-term perspective in staff.