Iceland’s investment banking in crosshairs

Reykjavik: Few countries conjure up images of financial ruin like Iceland. Its economy was famously gutted in 2008 when its over-sized banks all collapsed within weeks of each other.

A decade later, the island nation is still trying to crisis-proof its financial system. A key goal is to shield banking operations that are vital to the economy, such as deposit-taking, payments and lending. To that end, the government is taking a page from Britain’s post-crisis playbook with a plan to force banks to separate their retail and investment operations.