Q&A

What is ring fencing retail banking?

What is ring fencing retail banking?

Ring-fencing is a new regulation that requires the largest UK banks to separate their core retail banking services from their investment banking and international banking activities. The goal of regulators is to protect UK retail banking from shocks originating in other parts of the banking landscape.

Which UK banks are subject to ring fencing?

As at January 01, 2020, the UK banking groups that include ring-fenced bodies pursuant to section 142A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 are Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander UK, TSB, and Virgin Money UK.

Why is it important to ring-fence individuals savings held in banks?

Ring-fencing is intended to improve the resilience of the largest UK banks. It also seeks to ensure that if a large bank was to fail, there would be minimal disruption to banking services used by individuals and small businesses in the United Kingdom.

What is ring fencing in M&A?

The phrase “ring fencing” refers to steps taken to make a subsidiary “bankruptcy-proof” or “bankruptcy remote.” Ring fencing is used in a variety of financing situations, including acquisition financing, monetizing a subsidiary’s dividend distributions and corporate spin-offs.

Why are banks ring-fencing?

The aim of ring-fencing is to protect UK retail banking from shocks originating elsewhere in the group and in global financial markets. It covers banks with more than £25 billion of core (retail and SME) deposits.

What does ring-fencing a job mean?

10.1 Ring-fencing is the grouping of employees who have not been automatically matched to a new position to available vacancies within the new structure. Consideration will be given to comparing the job duties and grade of the new/vacant posts with the job currently undertaken by the employee(s).

What is the purpose of ring-fencing?

A ring-fence is a virtual barrier that segregates a portion of an individual’s or company’s financial assets from the rest. This may be done to reserve money for a specific purpose, to reduce taxes on the individual or company, or to protect the assets from losses incurred by riskier operations.

How will ring-fencing affect banks?

As the example shows, ring-fencing the retail bank helps to make sure it can continue offering consumer banking services. It will still be able to lend, and your money is safe. In other words, the ring-fence protects consumer banking services from shocks to the wider financial system.

Whose name is related to the ring-fence policy?

The policy of ring-fence was given by Warren Hastings(1774-85). Lord Hastings(1813-1823) adopted the policy of Intervention and War.

What are ring-fence profits?

In business and finance, ringfencing or ring-fencing occurs when a portion of a company’s assets or profits are financially separated without necessarily being operated as a separate entity.

What is the ring fence policy?

The Ring-Fence policy was a doctrine enacted by Warren Hasting which involved defending their neighbors’ frontiers in order to safeguard their own territories. This was reflected in the East India Company’s war against the Marathas and the Mysore Kingdom.

What does the term ring fencing mean?

What Is a Ring-Fence? A ring-fence is a virtual barrier that segregates a portion of an individual’s or company’s financial assets from the rest. This may be done to reserve money for a specific purpose, to reduce taxes on the individual or company, or to protect the assets from losses incurred by riskier operations.

How are retail bank customers affected by ring fencing?

How retail bank customers will be affected. The changes required by the ring-fencing rules resulted in a number of the largest banks carrying out a restructuring to separate their retail banking activities. This involved transfers of parts of the business to other parts of the group through a court process known as a ring-fencing transfer scheme.

Who is responsible for ring fencing in the UK?

Regulation of ring-fencing. The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) is the lead regulator for ring-fencing. It is responsible for identifying which banks are within the scope of the ring-fencing legislation and for supervising banks’ implementation of the prudential rules. We are working with the PRA, the Bank of England,…

How big does a bank have to be to be ring fenced?

Ring-fencing legislation applies only to UK banks with a 3-year average of more than £25bn ‘core deposits’ (broadly from individuals and small to medium-sized businesses). It is these large banks that must ‘ring-fence’ or legally separate their essential banking services from the rest of their banking group.

When did the Bank of England announce ring fencing?

31 October 2018: We published the ‘Ring-fencing: Summary of regulatory reporting requirements’ pack which summarises the new regulatory reporting, and reporting system requirements in relation to ring-fencing.