My thanks to Adrian Lloyd from the Banking Code Standards Board, to Stewart Cliffe from the National Association of Bank Customers, Rebecca Fernley from Consumers Association and Simon Pitkeathly representing the banks.

BBC

"It's going to add to the funding pressure on these banks, " said Simon Adamson, a banking analyst with research firm CreditSights Ltd.

WSJ: Downgrades Loom for Banks

The industry has been growing rapidly in the past year and is being tipped as a serious threat to traditional banks, the BBC's personal finance correspondent Simon Gompertz has reported.

BBC: Lancashire council becomes online lender

The German banks are at last starting to face facts, says Simon Harris at Oliver Wyman, a consultancy.

ECONOMIST: German banks

From 1973 through 1985, as Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, documented in 2009, American banks never earned more than 16 percent of domestic corporate profits.

FORBES: Occupy Wall Streeters Should Be Livid About Losing The Gold Standard