Yesterday, the president of Barclays condemned proposals to cut banks down in size, or split them up, arguing it would do nothing to make the financial world a safer place.

“If you say that large is bad and we move to narrow banks the impact on jobs and the global economy will be very negative,” Bob Diamond, who also heads Barclays Capital, the group’s booming investment banking arm, was quoted by media as saying at the annual World Economic Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland.

“I have seen no evidence to suggest that shrinking banks and making banks smaller and more narrow the major economies around the world”.

Lord Adair Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, the UK financial regulatory body, has indicated that he backs the broad thrust of Mr Obama's proposals. He was also attending the WEF conference in Davos. In recent months, Lord Turner has criticised some of the activities of financial market players, arguing that London's financial market is disproportionately large compared to the rest of the UK economy.