Paul Volcker to appear before banking standards inquiry In an opinion piece in the Financial Times on Tuesday, Tyrie said cultural shortfalls and measures providing banks with protection from the full disciplines of the market need to be tackled. Gaps in the law that have allowed banking malpractice to occur require attention. The common perception is that the law has done little to deter practices that often seemed criminal, to victims and observers alike," he said Tyrie also points to a "gap in knowledge and understanding" between banks and their customers as a clear need for higher standards in banking. "Recent scandals have amply illustrated the consequences; a failure of banks, and the culture within banks, to meet acceptable standards," said Tyrie. The commission will not be able to address all of these deep-rooted problems in a few months. But we can at least signal some remedies, suggesting ways to protect taxpayers better from the consequences of bank failure and to improve the experience of dealing with banks for customers of all types," he said. Volcker, who led the Fed under presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, has been at the forefront of recent regulatory attempts to reform the US banking system and will compare and contrast banking practices in Britain and the United States. The octogenarian is considered a sage of monetary policy and a crusader for tighter regulation in the United States. The hotly debated "Volcker rule" preventing banks from taking risky bets for their own gain rather than on behalf of their customers and mandated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law is expected to be completed by the end of this year. Britain is already committed to making its banks ring fence their domestic retail operations and to give savers a higher priority in the event that lenders hit trouble. But, in an interview last month with The Telegraph, Volcker said that ring fencing banks will not protect taxpayers in the event of another financial crisis. He said that plans to force banks in the UK to ring-fence their traditional retail arms from "casino" investment divisions would not work in the event of a bail out. Ringfencing, he said, would only work in "fair-weather" conditions but not when banks were under pressure. "In my experience ring-fencing is not terribly effective," said Mr Volcker. It only works in fair-weather. But doesn't work in foul weather. They have already run into problems and they are bound to run into more.