Heading out of the lion's den

Eric Daniels, the chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, will retire next year. This is also the case with John Varley of Barclays and Stephen Green of HSBC. Sir Fred Goodwin stepped down from RBS in 2008 when the government were forced to save the bank from collapse. With the exception of Peter Sands, chief executive of Standard Chartered, this marks the final departure of bosses who steered the banks through the financial crisis.

Standard Chartered were shielded from the severity of the crisis due to its larger exposure to developing markets.

The coming months could also prove to a be a turning point for HSBC and with that, a blow to Britain. In March, their chief executive, Michael Geoghegan relcoated to Hong Kong. Now as Stephen Green steps down as chairman to take up a position as Trade Minister, their next chairman could be based in Hong Kong.

This is symptomatic of a greater trend of banks moving east to capitalise on the growth in China and the rest of Asia. HSBC, Barclays and Standard Chartered have warned that this move will be acclerated if regulations become too stringent.

They have a point. We run the risk of pushing these banks away, hence lowering our international competitiveness in the long term, if we continue on this path. At the Liberal Democrat conference today, Vince Cable will announce further plans to levy 50% on banker's bonuses again. We must be very careful - satisfy the need to protect our economy but not be too rash in doing so.