Australians eye up UK and European bank operations

“If there were opportunities to buy smaller platforms or businesses coming loose from bigger institutions, we will look at them,” said Greg Ward.

“There is a bit of work to do in the UK and Europe. The business has not grown as much in the last few years.”

The UK banking review has asked top banks to shield their retail operations from riskier investment banking and hold more capital to protect taxpayers from any future crises, leading to speculation that some banks may need to shed assets.

Stronger global capital rules may also force some banks to sell assets to shore up capital in coming years.

For Macquarie, Europe is its smallest market, contributing 14 per cent to income. But in March, the group hired David Fass as chief executive for Europe from Deutsche Bank, prompting expectations of a build-up of its European business.

Macquarie has bought a string of boutique businesses in the US over the last three years to turn it into its second biggest market, contributing nearly a third of revenue.

Mr Ward said the group’s European strategy would be different from the US given its spread in the region already, where it employs around 1,600 people.

Macquarie will focus on acquiring strength in its key sectors, which include energy, infrastructure, utilities and resources.

“In Europe, it will be a sector-focused strategy. We already have a big team,” said Mr Ward.

Earlier this month, The Independent Commission on Banking recommended that banks should be forced to ring-fence retail operations to avoid taxpayers bearing the brunt of future bank collapses.

The ICB fell short of calling for investment arms to be split from savings and mortgages divisions, but insisted its plan to force lenders to hold more capital will reduce the likelihood of further collapses.

ICB chairman Sir John Vickers insisted the report did not go easy on the banks.

“I absolutely reject any notion that we’ve bottled it,” he said. “In no sense at all are these half-measures.”

Lloyds Banking Group, which took over ailing HBOS at the height of the financial crisis, was told it must sell more branches to improve competition.

But the report said that unravelling the Lloyds/HBOS merger would not be “a sensible course to pursue”.

Lloyds is already being forced to offload more than the 600 branches and parts of its mortgage and savings business under European measures.