THE European Commission has finally come to recognise the blindingly obvious: the EU’s banks are neither ready, willing nor able to become the engine for future economic growth.

EU lawmakers will quiz Jonathan Hill for a second time today after they said the UK’s nominee to be the bloc’s next financial services chief failed to satisfy them in an initial hearing last week.

The new European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker handed Britain supervision of EU financial services yesterday, offering an olive branch to a country that is weighing its future in the bloc.