November 14, 2011 - Rules relating to accounting practises among banks in Europe and the US should be amended to make sure they give a clearer representation of the truth. That is according to Chris Lucas, finance director at Barclays, who has written a letter published in today's (14 November) Financial Times in which he calls for a revamp of the "opaque and complex" regulations in place at the moment.

Mr Lucas explained that at present, large financiers on both sides of the Atlantic are able to artificially boost their profits meaning that, from now on, they should not adjust their figures to reflect the market value of their own debt.

"It makes results difficult to explain to investors and is unhelpful for an industry that wants to rebuild confidence through transparency in financial reporting," he noted.

This comes after David Cameron last week pledged to intervene over the Royal Bank of Scotland's plan to award its investment bankers a bonus pot of £500 million ($796 million) this year.