German cabinet approves tougher banking rules
The German cabinet has approved a raft of tougher new banking rules to shore up the financial sector against future crises.
The draft legislation aims to make banks and insurers shoulder more of the responsibility should they go bust.
Germany's government wants large banks to separate their different areas of activity in order to protect customers' deposits from riskier areas of banks' operations.
The rule will apply to institutions where high-risk operations such as high-frequency trading or hedge-fund financing make up either 20% of the balance sheet value or surpass €100bn.
The banks concerned will be required to transfer their risky businesses into legally and financially separate units.
