President Jose Manuel Barroso's call in the Financial Times for Europe to create a single banking regulation system and a financial backstop is highly significant: Germany is believed to support a move to create at least stage one of the union rapidly, ie common supervision, with 1 January 2013 mooted as the start date.

BBC: Eurozone banking union: The big bazooka

Some have also argued that the dual system of regulation will increase the consolidation of America's banking system.

ECONOMIST: Bothersome Basel

However it can charge interest on its loans, which is one way in which the banking system pays for its own regulation.

ECONOMIST: The business of banking | The

For instance, bitcoin exchange endpoints where bitcoin interfaces with national fiat money and the banking system is a possible point of regulation due to current AML and KYC guidelines in most countries.

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Financial regulation was supposed to clean up the banking system and level the playing field for consumers trying to access capital.

FORBES: New Financial Regs Will Force Low-Income Americans Out Of Traditional Banks

He will insist that pledges to extend opportunities to the 50% who don't go to university, to get the banking system to support small businesses and greater regulation of the energy and train companies are all examples of just that and show that he is pursuing a different approach not just from the Tories but from New Labour as well.

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As Mr Borio at the Bank for International Settlements points out, many of the ideas around countercyclicality (setting aside more capital in good times) and macroprudential regulation (safeguarding the stability of the whole banking system as well as of individual banks) were oven-ready, having been worked on by a coterie of central bankers, academics and regulators for a number of years.

ECONOMIST: Banks will still make money, just less of it

In emerging economies especially (where banking regulation is weakest), illegitimate money can poison the financial system, undermining public confidence.

ECONOMIST: Cleaning up dirty money