Breaking up 'too big to fail' banks: Britain leads, will U.S. follow?

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King won the fight in Britain to break up the banks that were "too big to fail." Now the big question is: Will Paul Volcker (pictured) get the Obama administration to follow suit? King got a lot of help from European regulators, who called for more and smaller banks to increase competition.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group (LYG) are being forced to sell off parts of their operations to get additional help from the government. Of the two, RBS will sell off the larger share; with its new cash infusion, the government will own 84.4 percent of the bank, but will have 70.3 percent of the voting rights. In exchange, RBS will get 25.5 billion pounds from the U.K. government.