There is no commonly-accepted definition of proprietary trading. Most activity undertaken by banks results in some form of proprietary position. In principle, the type of trading which causes the greatest concern is where the bank is using its own funds, raised from shareholders, depositors and creditors, to speculate on markets, without any connection to customer activity. This has been the main focus of the Committee's consideration in this report. Some banks, particularly US investment banks, historically had units dedicated to such activity. However, an examination of proprietary trading which only considered such units would be inadequate, because speculative activity can also take place alongside customer-related trading. The difficulty of moving beyond this theoretical definition to being able to differentiate in practice between what has been termed "pure" proprietary trading and the other kinds of trading activity is considered in more detail later in this Report. There is a wide range of activities which may from the outside look like proprietary trading, but which banks could attempt to justify as being related to customer business or hedging. Equally, proprietary trading for the benefit of the bank can be, and frequently has been, contrary to the interests of its customers. The Committee sets out a number of recommendations to assess and monitor this particular activity.