Darling says UK needs to change 'Kamikaze' banking system

Chancellor of the Exchequer AlistairDarling said the UK needs a new banking system to stop financial institutions behaving in a “kamikaze” manner.

“We need to learn lessons from the financial crisis in which banks behaved in a kamikaze manner and the regulatory system failed,” Darling wrote in the News of the World newspaper on Sunday. “That needs to change. I want a new banking system we can all rely on and which will be the foundation of our new prosperity.”

Proposals on financial reform to be published this week will strengthen the hand of regulators to prevent a repeat of the crisis that plunged Britain into recession, according to Darling.

“We will deliver tougher regulation and more rigorous monitoring and managing of system-wide risks so we can make sure we are ready and able to deal with failures when arise,” he wrote.

“Regulators will get powers to do their jobs more effectively, to ask searching questions.”