Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

I am grateful to noble Lords for identifying some issues regarding the reclaim fund. We have argued throughout that we want light-touch regulation of the reclaim fund, which is a private body. The answer to the noble Baroness is straightforward in those terms. What does it mean in terms of regulation? We have said that there are certain aspects where the Financial Services Authority will operate regulations with regard to the reclaim fund. The FSA will receive those powers through secondary legislation, consequent on passage of this Bill. The Treasury will have a most distant relationship with the reclaim fund. It is not the case, as some on the other side of the Committee may fear, that the Treasury will have a clear perspective on priorities and seek to impose those on the fund—very far from it. All that the Treasury will do is occupy a position of last resort under the law. If the reclaim fund was not fulfilling its articles and not acting responsibly, the Treasury could take court action against the fund. That is how distant the relationship is. It will not be the authority of government controlling this body but, as a very last resort, having failed to respond to issues which the FSA may have raised with the reclaim fund, the Treasury acting at that great distance.