Retail Banks: why do they stand between capital and strategy?

Banks currently face massive management, structural, ethical and regulatory challenges. One force requires them to remain universal banks in the Anglo-American model – combining commercial and investment banking activities in one entity. Another drags them in the opposite direction – towards separating retail banking from investment banking. New legislation both the UK and the US favors separation of the two forms of banking – as do the de facto legislative and regulatory regimes currently operating in countries/regions like Canada, Nordic Europe and Australia – all of which did very well in the current crisis. Another major factor in banking reform is banking standards – and here the UK is setting the lead with a proposed regime that would require bankers of all specializations to be professionally educated and independently accredited on a regular basis. In particular, the paper provides some in depth analysis about the different bank models operating in Canada, Nordic Europe and Australia aiming to give a solid contribution to the renaissance of the new retail banking.