Miliband banning call for reckless bankers

Mr Miliband demanded tough new rules allowing regulators to “strike off” reckless City staff in the same way negligent midwives and doctors can be struck off.

He said: “Banking should be a trusted profession. Other professions – such as medicine and the law – have codes of conduct and disciplinary rules.

“Bankers should be held to account to ensure they act with integrity, in the best interests of their customers, and in the best interests of the wider public.”

Mr Miliband’s call came ahead of today’s publication of the Independent Commission on Banking’s (ICB) final report, which will make recommendations on how to prevent another banking crisis.

The Government launched the ICB, chaired by Sir John Vickers, last year to find ways of avoiding another banking crisis and taxpayer bailout.

Mr Miliband added: “We should never have to bail the banks out again. To guarantee that we need the serious and lasting reform.”

Meanwhile, Business Secretary Vince Cable warned the industry to prepare for sweeping reforms so they could never again use “the deposits of British savers to play the banking equivalent of the roulette wheel”.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he criticised institutions which continue to award top staff “lavish remuneration packages”.

Mr Cable said: “Banks must be left under no illusions that reform is coming. The recession is not an excuse for postponing banking reform. Indeed our economic recovery depends on it.”

Describing why an overhaul of the banking system was needed, the Minister said: “Three years on from the massive financial heart attack which did enormous damage to the world’s economy, we have been reminded that although a complete collapse was averted by the surgeons in central banks and finance Ministers, the patient is still far from well.

“The carnage (of the crisis) would have been worse had the Government – the taxpayer – not stepped in to offer guarantees and emergency lending for all banks that were short of liquidity.

“Yet top bankers, whose institutions remain dependent on taxpayer guarantees, continue to award themselves huge salaries and bonuses.”

Comment: Page 10.