Large multinational banks that organise themselves as a constellation of self-sufficient subsidiaries could be candidates for lower capital requirements than those that operate as fully integrated global groups, Lord Turner, chairman of the UK Financial Services Authority, said on Monday.

Lord Turner’s proposal, discussed at a UK forum on how to deal with banks that are seen as “too big to fail”, could offer significant competitive advantages to banks such as Santander, owner of Abbey National in the UK, and to a lesser extent Standard Chartered.