how do you propose they make money to keep the bank open? Charge for accounts? I don't think such a draconian rule is needed here. Free checking is nice.

There's nothing wrong with being a low risk lender. Thats not the central problem with the banking system in the US. Its that bigger banks take riskier and riskier bets with money that they really shouldn't be, and when bad times hit they often don't have proper risk management in place to cover it, or its unpredictably catastrophic.

It used to be that these activities were separated, limiting risk to the average person significantly as a result. Simply forcing that separation again would be more than enough to get some stability back into the banking system.