Here’s a comment you won’t hear too often from me. I was having a chat with Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne the other day…

When asked if he was happy with how our banks had performed over the last twelve months, he seemed surprisingly open and forthcoming. He wasn’t happy with them, not happy at all.

He outlined plans for a major restructure of the banks along with the removal of the failed 3-way FSA/Bank of England/Treasury regulatory quango – where no one makes a decision – to the dismantling of the FSA itself. Clearly, here was a man with a mission.

But it was the broad agreement with me over my vision for a future based on boutique banks that promise to offer a more closely-aligned customer offering that really excited me. And the intention to make building those banks easier to do.

I’m not a big fan of politicians. I find myself very often questioning their motives for choosing such a career and their almost universal ability to not answer a direct question – or to shift the responsibility for the root cause at every opportunity. But I saw none of this in George Osborne’s comments.

He accepted the problems with our banking system and without labouring (sorry, no pun intended) the cause of them, was prepared to both listen and offer a view on what I was saying and his own ideas.

How about a central state bank?

I put to him the idea I posted about some time ago of a centralised bank to deal with zero-value-add, back-office transactions, like ATM payments, cheque processing and inter-bank transfers.

These services are expensive to establish and maintain and the cartel-like nature of their provision excludes any new player setting up a new bank because of the costs involved.

The return of choice to our high street

If these services were provided by a central bank, they would allow boutique banks to start trading without such overheads and help bring about consumer choice, something that has been lost in the consolidation of the high street that began a few years ago and that has accelerated following the banking crash.

Whilst state ownership cuts deeply across Conservative policies, I detected some real consideration of this as a means of providing a level playing field in the banking sector. Factor in the potential reduction in money laundering opportunities, along with a clearer view of money flows around the banks, is the idea is so far fetched?

But did he listen?

With only a few minutes with him and with nothing more than a little presumption and cheek, I got the chance to talk to a man who could arguably be the UK’s most important politician. So will anything I said be taken on board?

I’m sure he has far more talent to draw on than anything I could offer. But if the odd boutique bank appears should his Party win a general election, well I may just ask myself. Did I have a hand in putting boutique banks on our high street?