This led to a very small number of banks dominating the UK market—the so-called Big Four—with virtually no competition at all.
After a period of consultation,[8] the regulation to enable this formed part of the Financial Services Act 2012, which came into force on 1 April 2013.
A summary and assessment from Harvard Law School can be accessed online.
In July 2014, the PRA, together with their co-regulators, the Financial Conduct Authority published a review of the requirements, one year on.
[10] This list contains companies that received authorisation from the PRA to operate as banks in the UK.