Effectively the measures that have been taken in terms of policy decisions by the UK Government and by other governments around the world, that has effectively almost trapped the Government and potential next Government into a particular policy line. And so there's very little scope for the parties to have any different policies on this issue.

But there a contradiction of policy that the Government's had to impose on the banks at the moment. On the one hand being seen to act tough and to force the banks to provide new loans to the economy but on the other hand effectively realising that in order to restore a healthy banking sector again the banks from the position that they are now, very weak, they need to earn these big profits and as well to reduce their balance sheets in order to reach a more sustainable position.

And so they're quite keen, without necessarily publicising, it for the banks to continue to earn these big profits. And also related to that is the fact that the taxpayer obviously has a stake in the banks now in terms of the shares it holds.

And so the Government wants the banks to return to a more sustainable position in order for the share prices to continue to rise and so in time when the Government or whichever Government comes to actually sell these shares back into the private market that you can say, look we've made a profit on the policy measures that we took to try to save the banks and so everyone's a winner as such.

Now the Government might make a play of its super tax 50 per cent tax rate that it imposed on this fiscal year's bonus payments which has brought in about £1.5b of revenue to the Treasury. But really it hasn't fundamentally changed anything in terms of the structure of bonuses being paid next year and the year after. And so far there's been very little movement from the other parties as well into how they might change this in terms of policy going forward.

So again in terms of there's been very little differences between the three parties, it's unlikely, I think, to be a major policy issue during the campaign.

There is a slight difference I think between the parties' approach to this issue. The Government, Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown, have both stated that they're not in favour of this simple split between investment and utility banking.

The Conservatives, slightly siding a bit more with the Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King, who thinks this is absolutely necessary as part of a whole range of potential reform measures going forward and it needs to address this issue of moral hazard that is residing within the banking sector and will continue to be a major weighing down effect going forward in terms of major reforms.

I think the issue in terms of for the election, they probably can breathe easily. There won't be too many differences in the policies that the different parties are going to prepare.

But I think over a longer term they realise that there will be some changes in terms of higher capital requirement, higher liquidity requirement, a bit more tightening of oversight. And whether this is actually enough to address again this moral hazard issue in terms of the too big to fail that is the key issue I think going forward which none of the parties at present seem to be addressing.