Big UK banks split over response to tougher rules demanding ringfencing

Lloyds Banking Group is seeking an exemption to one of the key measures of the UK’s new ringfencing regime, as the country’s big banks take radically different approaches to rules aimed at protecting taxpayers from future financial crises.

The Bank of England has given the banks until today to submit initial proposals for how they will restructure to comply with rules forcing the separation of high-street branch operations from investment banking by 2019.

Lloyds will seek a waiver for its ringfenced entity to have a different board of directors to that of its parent group. The bank said more than 90 per cent of its operations will be inside the new entity, making a separate board unnecessary.

Barclays and HSBC plan to put as little as possible into their ringfenced entities to boost the size of their remaining operations and lower their cost of funding.Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland are set to present plans for a ringfence that is as broad as possible. All the banks declined to comment. Copyright 2015 The Financial Times Limited