Narrow Banking

Download Narrow Banking report (0.14Mb PDF)

Read our hard-hitting new report which argues for the radical redesign of the financial services industry.

"Narrow Banking" is John Kay's controversial and insightful report arguing for a radical redesign of the financial services industry. It is published by NESTA and the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation.

Professor Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, described the report as "probably... the most important piece [of work] on regulation in ten years" to the Treasury Select Committee.

The report argues that the only way to fix the UK's banking sector is to split finance in two: a regulated sector handling savings, and a unregulated sector for wholesale finance. John argues that this split between "utility" and "casino" banking will make the system more safe, and encourage innovation that acts in the interests of consumers, rather than of bankers.

Read the report in full here and take a look at the full FAQs that John has published to support it.

John Kay is a visiting Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, a Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford.

He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and a member of the Scottish Government’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Read NESTA's new report Balancing Act which looks at ways in which the UK economy can be rebalanced by focusing on innovation and hi-tech industries.