George Osborne: a British Glass-Steagall Act?

Ben Brogan rightly zeroes in on the question of restoring barriers between retail and invesment banking as part of efforts to fix the financial system.   (Click here for a useful history of the US Glass-Steagall Act.)

Gordon Brown doesn't think that's a runner.  ("We do not envisage, as some have advocated, a rigid divide in future between "narrow banking" – retail and corporate deposit taking – and investment banking and trading conducted at an international level.")

But asked about a new legal bar on the radio this morning, George Osborne said:  "It's something worth considering".

Which strikes me as, well, striking.  Could a new Tory government arrive next year and launch one of the biggest changes in recent City history?   If the chaps who run the investment banking divisions of Barclays and HSBC were listening to the wireless this morning, they may just be wondering.