Stop someone in the street about an important event in 2012, and the most common answer would by the London Olympics. But the UK Treasury is staging its own marathon the same year - the race to get its new regulatory structure in place before the Financial Services Authority is abolished. Expect this one to go right to the wire.

In June last year, Chancellor George Osborne's announced that the FSA would be split into a new Prudential Regulatory Authority, which would sit within the Bank of England, and an independently-run Consumer Protections and Markets Authority. The FSA would formally be closed by 2012, he said.