The truth is, though, that the massive amount of regulation is both good and bad. It is good that the consumer is protected but it is bad that it is easier for a bank to stay with 50 year old technology that is already approved than risk releasing something brand-new since mistakes are penalised so badly. I think a more open regime would be better, obviously accepting that the bank has to ultimately make sure that their customers don't lose out.

For example, "Dear customer, we are moving all mortgages to a new system which will make it much cheaper to run. Just in case some of the calculated payments are out by a few pennies, we will be giving all customers £1000 towards their mortgage to account for these". Much cheaper in the long run but we seem to prefer the costs of flogging a dead horse with the small amount of "sweetener" we could pay instead.