The banking network in the UK is the result of years of evolution by the four main clearing banks.
It is one of the smaller clearing banks.
Much of the recommendations have been acted upon, and in the UK, the Financial Services Authority, Bank of England and clearing banks have all co-operated to raise standards of internal controls and compliance.
The clearing banks make tens of millions of pounds every year from these delays.
That has always been the situation with the universal banks of jurisdictions like Germany, but in England the clearing banks and merchant banks were for over a century institutionally separate.