News release: “Bank board members must be personally liable for mistakes and banks’ riskier trading activities must be clearly separated from their more conservative lending ones, said MEPs on Wednesday, in a resolution setting out Parliament’s priorities for a broad overhaul of EU banks. The non-legislative resolution, an input to Commission proposals due in September, also stresses the need for more competition in the banking sector and for further reform of banks’ remuneration and corporate governance structures.

“Arlene McCarthy (S&D, UK), the MEP steering the position through Parliament told fellow MEPs “We need to deliver a change in culture… We are not out to ban activities but we want a structured and responsible universal banking model which can ensure funding to the real economy. Banking will always have risks but in a free market economy these should not be borne by very generous tax payer safety nets”.