A British report has put forward a series of far-reaching proposals to guard against future banking crises and ensure taxpayers do not bear the brunt of the costs in the case of failures.
The Independent Commission on Banking suggests Britain's banks should shield their retail operations from riskier investment banking units and boost capital levels.
The Commission says this would make it easier and less costly to resolve banks that get in to trouble.
Other proposals include requiring banks to hold core capital of at least 10% in their British retail banking operations and have primary loss-absorbing capital of between 17% and 20%.
It estimated the annual pretax cost of its proposals for Britain's banks at between £4 billion and £7 billion.
The BBC calls it the most radical reform of British banks in a generation, and possibly ever and says it will be hated by the biggest UK banks, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays.
The British government set up the ICB last year to examine ways to ensure taxpayers do not bear the brunt of future banking crises.
