Financial Markets

The hon. Gentleman is correct in saying that it will inevitably take time to work through this. What happened in Sweden, of course, is largely in relation to that particular country; this problem, however, has affected the whole world. Our objective needs to be clearly stated in relation to our long-term intentions. On due diligence, I should say that over the last few days we and our advisers have been in intensive discussions with the two banks concerned. As I think I said this morning, the FSA has taken what it regards as a cautious view, having regard to the difficulties faced in the economy now, as to what the liabilities of the banks might be. That is one of the reasons why the sums in relation to those two banks are higher than might have been anticipated.