Turner backs bank 'death' plans

Lord Turner suggested banks should no longer benefit from "tax arbitrage"

The boss of the UK financial watchdog has backed proposals to make banks plan for their own collapse.

Financial Services Authority chairman Lord Turner backed international proposals to simplify tax structures and create "living wills" for banks.

In an interview with the Financial Times, he admitted that the plans would be highly contentious.

Countries are debating how to reform banking codes to prevent future spates of bank failures.

Winding down

"Living wills will be a forcing device for the clarification and simplification of legal structures," Lord Turner told the FT.

Banks often structure themselves in different territories to benefit from a country's tax system, which often means that authorities do not know the true level of risk they face from a bank based in its country.

The "wills" proposals would force big international banks that the system relies on to set out how they are structured in the event they fail and need to be wound down.

The move comes almost a year after the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers, which shocked investors and almost paralysed the financial system.

Since then, governments have spent billions bailing out banks that had been deemed "too big to fail".

"In the past, authorities around the world have tended to be tolerant of the proliferation of complex legal structures" designed to lower tax bills, Lord Turner said.

"Now we may have to demand clarity of legal structure."

The proposals would likely force up the tax bills of many of the world's largest banks.

Lord Turner recently entered the debate on large bonuses at banks.

He said he would be happy to consider a tax on banks to prevent excessive bonus payments.

But he later said it was "ridiculous" to think he would propose a new tax on London and not the rest of the world.