Britain Eases Banks' Ring-Fencing Rules

UK to Scrap Parts of Ring-Fencing Rules to Boost Lending

Treasury launches reforms to ease ring-fencing rules on banks

The move was warmly received by a raft of banks including NatWest and Santander on Monday.

UK sets out ring-fencing rule review

The Prudential Regulation Authority in the UK has disclosed plans to consult this summer on changes to rules governing shared operational services for ring-fenced banks, as part of a wider package of reforms to the UK ring-fencing regime released by HM Treasury.  The ring-fencing framework, brought in during 2019 after the financial crisis, applies to banks with more than £35bn ($46.bn) in core deposits and investment banking operations.   Under…

HMT Policy Paper ‘Safeguarding Stability, Enabling Growth: The Ring-Fencing Review’

On 18 May 2026, HM Treasury issued a policy paper, ‘Safeguarding Stability, Enabling Growth: The Ring-Fencing Review’.BackgroundAt last year’s Mansion House the Chancellor confirmed the government would uphold ring-fencing and undertake a review (the Review) to identify meaningful reform to support growth.Proposed reformsFollowing the Review, the government has announced in the policy paper that it will take forward a package of meaningful refor…

Rachel Reeves reforms ring-fencing in boost to Natwest and Lloyds

Rachel Reeves has handed a major boost to the likes of Natwest and Lloyds with an overhaul of the ring-fencing regime in hopes to free up capital to be invested into the UK. The Treasury has unveiled a shakeup of the 15-year-old legislation, which requires major banks to separate their retail banking operations from their investment banking activities, after lobbying from banking chiefs branding the structure “redundant”. A “growth allowance” in…