The Treasury Select Committee met with leading economist Paul Volcker during a recent visit to the United States. After what was a lively and constructive question and answer session John McFall said that the Committee were very grateful for Mr. Volcker sharing his insight; “This was certainly the highlight of the Committee’s visit to the United States. Paul Volker is the leading voice on resolving the question of implicit government guarantees for high risk financial institutions. The discussion was particularly relevant to our current inquiry on Too Important to Fail.’ ‘Paul put forward some persuasive ideas about restructuring the banking sector to ensure that the tax payer was no longer on the hook for reckless practice. Our Committee have been Mr Volcker spoke on the subject of financial institutions that are considered so important to the economy that their failure would have a wide ranging effect. He argued that the task should now be to restructure banking systems so that, should a bank ‘fail’, it will not impact on the wider economy. Mr. Vocker has been a leading voice in the US on banking reform, and President Obama adopted the ‘Volcker Rule’ in his announcement this year which detailed plans for a narrow banking sector. Mr. Volcker is Chairman of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board under President Obama. He previously held the position of Chairman of the US Federal Reserve.