Book excerpt: The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards was established in July 2012, in the wake of the LIBOR scandal, to conduct an inquiry into professional standards and culture in the UK banking sector and to make recommendations for legislative and other action. This final report from the Commission contains a package of recommendations to raise standards, including: making senior bankers personally responsible, reforming bank governance, creating better functioning and more diverse markets, reinforcing the powers of regulators and making sure they do their job. Key recommendations include: A new Senior Persons Regime, replacing the Approved Persons Regime, to ensure that the most important responsibilities within banks are assigned to specific, senior individuals so they can be held fully accountable for their decisions and the standards of their banks in these areas; a new licensing regime underpinned by Banking Standards Rules to ensure those who can do serious harm are subject to the full range of enforcement powers; a new criminal offence for Senior Persons of reckless misconduct in the management of a bank, carrying a custodial sentence; a new remuneration code better to align risks taken and rewards received in remuneration, with much more remuneration to be deferred and for much longer; a new power for the regulator to cancel all outstanding deferred remuneration, along with unvested pension rights and loss of office or change of control payments, for senior bank employees in the event of their banks needing taxpayer support, creating a major new incentive on bankers to avoid such risks.