The government has announced what it describes as one of the biggest overhauls of financial regulation for more than three decades.
It says the package of more than 30 reforms will “cut red tape” and “turbocharge growth”.
Rules that forced banks to legally separate retail banking from riskier investment operations will be reviewed.
Those were introduced after the 2008 financial crisis when some banks faced collapse.
The package of changes, the “Edinburgh Reforms”, is being presented as an example of post-Brexit freedom to tailor regulation specifically to the needs and strengths of the UK economy.
However, critics say it risks forgetting the lessons of the financial crisis.
Between 2007 and 2009 the then-Labour government spent £137bn of public money to bail out banks.
Overall, taxpayers have lost £36.4bn on those bailouts, according to the latest estimate from independent forecaster the Office for Budget Responsibility.
The plans to ease regulations on financial services are being described as another “Big Bang” – a reference to the deregulation of financial services by Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1986.
The government has already announced it will scrap a cap on bankers’ bonuses and allow insurance companies to invest in long-term assets such as housing and windfarms to boost investment and help its levelling up agenda.
Rules governing how senior finance executives are hired, monitored and sanctioned will be overhauled.
There will also be new rules around bundling investments together into tradeable units – a process called securitisation.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the changes would secure “the UK’s status as one of the most open, dynamic and competitive financial services hubs in the world”.
The reforms “seize on our Brexit freedoms to deliver an agile and home-grown regulatory regime that works in the interest of British people and our businesses”.
Mr Hunt met bosses of the UK’s largest financial services in Edinburgh on Friday to discuss the reforms.
While in Edinburgh he was asked whether the reforms risked sowing the seeds of the next financial crash.
He said: “We have learned the lessons of that crash, we put in place some very important guardrails which will remain, but the banks have become much healthier financially since 2008.”
