George Osborne welcomes banking report

A long-awaited report on reshaping the banking industry has just been published, calling for far-reaching measures to shield ordinary customers from riskier investment banking.

It was drawn up by the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB), which was set up to try to prevent a repeat of the banking crisis of 2008 and further bailouts by the taxpayer.

The ICB said its proposed reforms could result in pre-tax costs for Britain's banks of up to £7bn.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, said the commission had "done a very good job".