Ed Balls on the Vickers Report on banking reform:

“The way that the commission was going about it is ring-fencing the retail banking side, strengthening capital controls there, that sounds to me to be the right approach, there is no need to break up institutions but there has got to be clear separation.”

I’m instinctively in favour of separating retail and investment banking but if Ed Balls thinks ring-fencing is good enough, I’m inclined to believe him.