International banks will have to hold more assets in their subsidiaries if they want to avoid a re-run of the chaos caused by the fall of Lehman Brothers, according to PwC, administrators for the European operations of the collapsed bank.

The comments come as the UK Financial Services Authority is pushing a series of contentious liquidity proposals that would involve UK subsidiaries doing just that. Banks have warned, however, that the rules would tie up capital and dent the UK's competitiveness if the regulator forges ahead without waiting for other regulators to agree an international system.

Lehman Brothers' sudden collapse, particularly in Europe where it had massive cross-border trading operations, left global markets in disarray as leading banks, hedge funds and other investors struggled to work out their positions.