The Independent Commission on Banking has published its interim report in the form of an Issues Paper.

The purposes of the Issues Paper are to indicate how the Commission is approaching its task, to set out the issues on which the Commission will be focused, and to serve as a Call for Evidence inviting submissions from all interested parties.

The Issues Paper describes the Commission’s initial approach to considering financial stability, competition and the other issues to which it must have regard under its Terms of Reference. The Paper then outlines a number of options for reform in broad terms, but emphasises that the list is not intended to be exhaustive and that the Commission has not moved towards any particular options at this stage.

Commission chair Sir John Vickers said: “Experience shows that the risks from not asking hard questions about financial stability and competition are far greater than from doing so. Questions about the structure of banking need to be debated in an open