Financial Services Bill

That, indeed, is the point. Why should people who have highly paid positions in private banks, but who do not sit in either an executive or a non-executive role on a board, not be declared? Why should such disclosure be limited to directors alone, whether executive or non-executive? The principle of disclosure has already been accepted, and the kind of arguments that I have heard from some people in the investment banks—"We don't want to be identified because there's a security issue"—apply just as much to the directors of those other companies. Sir David Walker has produced an embarrassing mouse of a report that has clearly embarrassed the City Minister. I hope that when the Chancellor produces his revised direction—I am not sure what status that document has—he will take that fully into account. Thirdly, it seemed to me that what the Chancellor said about short selling was right and appropriate, and that the changes to the legislation are exactly as they should be. We should not have a completely dogmatic, fundamentalist opposition to short selling. Short selling—dealing in stock that one does not own—may have a perfectly legitimate role in certain markets. However, there is a particular problem with banks, because banks' reserve capital—their regulatory capital—depends on share capital, which depends on the share price, and if the share price is manipulated as a result of short selling, that brings the taxpayer directly into the frame. That means that people are, in effect, gambling against the taxpayer, which is not right. It is also dangerous, and it is quite right that there should be strong regulatory powers to govern it. Fourthly and finally, the consumer issues are important. Several of the consumer provisions in the Bill are sensible and helpful. There is the class action to avoid large numbers of people having to go to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The Chancellor cited the case of pension mis-selling, and I would guess that the same applies to payment protection insurance. There are many examples of how the procedure could be simplified, and it is good that there are to be stronger disciplinary powers for the FSA. The idea of having a centre for financial education is also helpful, in bringing together the different strands of activity in financial education. It is not yet clear where the money will come from, whether the centre will be independent or what the governance structure will be, but no doubt that will emerge in Committee. It is also useful to have proposed action on credit card cheques, which have been the subject of some abuse in the past. I am not quite sure what future such cheques have, because my understanding is that banks will stop using and transacting cheques. Indeed, I am not sure whether such cheques will exist in future, so perhaps we need some clarification there. There have been some helpful submissions in the past few days from the citizens advice bureaux and the Consumers Association, listing a whole lot of other provisions. They make the point that if the Bill is to be a round-up of useful consumer actions, why are those other things not being considered as well? There are about a dozen suggestions, but I will list only what seem to be the most important. First, there is the issue of contingent charges. Since the court ruling last week that legitimised what the banks have been doing in imposing what many regard as unfair charges on overdrafts and other things, is it not now necessary to straighten out the law? It would appear that the court ruling was based on a narrow point of law rather than an issue of principle. Should not this Bill be used to sort out that problem? There are hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, who have lost money as a result of those unfair charges and who feel a strong grievance about it. There is also the issue of set-offs. People are finding that if they put money into a deposit, that money is directly deducted from their outstanding loans. In effect, the banks are appointing themselves as preferred creditors, which is fundamentally wrong and unfair to the consumer. There are also issues such as unauthorised and unsolicited overdraft limits being raised unilaterally, without any consultation with consumers. Then there is the issue of the repossession of the properties of landlords—a matter in which the Government have been actively involved in the past. I had understood that the Bill would be a vehicle for strengthening legal protection for victims of repossession in such cases. There is also the unilateral re-pricing of debt by many banks in respect of their outstanding loans, and the changing of minimum payments on credit charges at the discretion of the banks. There are many such practices, although I do not know—I am not a parliamentary draftsman—whether new laws are necessary to deal with them. What would be helpful—I make this as a practical suggestion—is if the Government could indicate which of the many proposals being made by the various consumer protection bodies are covered by the FSA, by the Office of Fair Trading or by both, which can be dealt with through secondary or devolved legislation, and which require primary legislation, so that we can understand how consumer protection in banking and finance can be brought up to date and up to scratch.