LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Britain's finance ministry, which is seeking to boost competition in the banking sector, on Thursday proposed legislation to ease rules that require banks to "ring-fence" their retail arms with a cushion of capital. The draft legislation proposes to increase the threshold at which ring-fencing applies to banks from 25 billion pounds ($30.31 billion) to 35 billion pounds. Britain introduced the ring-fencing rule in January 2019 following the costly taxpayer bail-outs of banks during the global financial crisis over a decade ago. "It will improve outcomes for banks and their customers, increase competition and improve the competitiveness of the UK banking sector," Griffith said. Another change would allow ring-fenced banks to set up entities outside Britain to compete with international and domestic banking groups.

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Persons: Keith Skeoch, Andrew Griffith, Griffith, Banks, Huw Jones, William Schomberg Organizations: Bank of England, Thomson Locations: Britain