Financial institutions, including UK bank Barclays, are being forced to shunt their risky activities into the less-regulated world of shadow banking, according to regulatory experts, in what could be an unintended consequence of new rules on capital against trading books.

Simon Gleeson, a partner at Clifford Chance who has advised the World Economic Forum, said: "This is the first time since 1988 that bank regulatory capital requirements have been above economic capital requirements, and the impact of that on the industry as a whole is very substantial.