The battle for retail depositors

Regulators want to see the banking industry rebuilt around the stability of retail customer deposits. But how much do banks know about these liabilities, and how could depositor behaviour change if competition intensifies? Duncan Wood reports

During the second half of January 2009, the British public was keeping a close eye on Barclays – its shares lost more than two-thirds of their value in just nine days, and rumours of an imminent state rescue only died away when the bank’s senior management published details of its financial strength on January 26. But it may be surprising to learn the bank – which has around 15 million retail customers in the UK – was keeping a close eye on the British public too.

“We could see, at a granular