Citywire: Banks: You can’t make us smaller

Imposing new requirements on banks or attempting to reduce them in size would harm the UK's economy, the head of the British Bankers' Association warned today, as she led an attack on proposals to limit the scale of banks.
Angela Knight, speaking at the BBA's Annual International Banking Conference in London, also said imposing higher capital requirements on banks would lead to reduced lending to the wider economy, and would ultimately weigh on growth.
She said: 'Banks are actually holding more capital than required by Basel II and more additions will have an impact on banks' ability to support the broader economy.'