Full separation – ie into separate entities with restrictions on cross-ownership – might provide the strongest firewall to protect retail banking services from contagion effects of external shocks.
Under a settlement to a class-action lawsuit, the Pentagon has agreed to pay full separation pay to all service members involuntarily separated from the military after Nov. 10, 2004, because of their sexual orientation.
The nuclear option of full separation was left hanging over BT if it did not cooperate.
Mudie says Vickers told him that he hadn't taken full separation off the table.
On current polling, this measure is more likely than full separation to win majority support.
But he stressed he did not see ringfencing as a path towards full separation.
A ringfence split also allows banks to share internal systems and infrastructure, again cheaper than full separation.
Some, including TalkTalk, are calling for a full separation between BT and Openreach, if only to reduce regulatory complexity.
But some 90% of its population are ethnic Albanians who have long demanded full separation from Serbia.
I believe that full separation would have had higher costs and for a gain that might not even be positive," Vickers said.
The New Economics Foundation (Nef) still believes that full separation of the banks is a cleaner, more efficient option than ringfencing.
