MPs to quiz Turner on bank break-ups

FINANCIAL Services Authority chairman Lord Adair Turner will be grilled by MPs today on whether banks should be broken up to ensure they are less systemically risky.

Turner will give evidence to the Treasury committee on his vision of the future of regulation, with the size of UK banks likely to feature highly.

A committee member told City PM that he expects questions based on governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King’s comment last week that “if some banks are thought to be too big to fail…then they are too big”.

He said the committee would also quiz Turner on the merits of introducing a law mimicking the now abolished US Glass-Steagall Act, which required the separation of retail and investment banking.