LONDON, May 25 (Reuters) - Britain's banks are stuck on acold "tundra" of flagging financial returns and failure totackle structural problems like overpaid investment bankers anda lack of trust, a senior Bank of England policymaker said onWednesday.
Martin Taylor, a member of the BoE's Financial PolicyCommittee which sets the regulatory tone for supervising banks,said lenders may be pursuing "unsustainably" high returns onequity of 10-15 percent at a time of low interest rates.
"We are in Siberia, where many people feel bankers belong,"Taylor said in a speech.
The former chief executive of Barclays added that nearlynine years since the financial crisis started in 2007 banks areshowing signs of recognising that their business models needfundamental change.
"The length of time it has taken for this penny to drop hasproved very costly," Taylor said.
Behind the "improbably glossy surface", retail banks havestill not rebuilt trust with customers.
"Sermons won't fix it, and nor will advertising," Taylorsaid. (Reporting by Huw Jones, editing by Andrew MacAskill)