In the news

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               Unions dismissed today's long-awaited proposals to shake up banking as a  "weak gesture" that failed to hold banks to account for the crisis they  created. 

                                            The Independent Commission on Banking report recommended that Britain's  biggest banks are given until 2019 to implement proposed reforms  supposedly designed to prevent another taxpayer bailout. 

The Treasury described it as "impressive" and an important step towards a new banking system.

But unions and the Robin Hood Tax campaign dismissed the report as a missed opportunity to put in place effective regulations to restrain greed and recklessness in bank boardrooms.

Unite national officer David Fleming warned that workers faced more uncertainty over their future because proper reform had been "kicked into the long grass.

"This report is another missed opportunity in preventing a repeat of the financial crisis in the future. Simply creating a firewall is at best a weak gesture and at worst a pointless act which will not in any material way impact the behaviour or culture at the top of the banks where this crisis was born."
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-- Bank shake-up 'just a gesture'