Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill

The Minister said that electrification would work because the regulator—the PRA or the FCA where ...

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, which we considered in drafting the Bill. We would e...

Of course, the UK regulator will have to know whether the third-country regulator will accept res...

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. That will be one of the requirements—the regulator, and i...

I apologise for interrupting the Minister a second time. Just to be clear, will it be the regulat...

The resolution plans have to be agreed between the regulator and the Treasury, so both will have ...

Just to get some clarity on the previous point about the relationship with overseas regulators, i...

The reason for arranging this through the resolution plans is that they should be agreed in advan...

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that commitment. Another issue that made life more difficult...

I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s point. As I said, I have published some of the principal s...

I apologise for interrupting for a third time, but I want to clarify the scrutiny question. The G...

I cannot do that, but I repeat my commitment that this House will have the opportunity fully to c...

The Minister talks in very emollient tones, because he likes to sound moderate, but this is a ser...

The hon. Gentleman will discover that through our debates in Committee he will have plenty of opp...

I am afraid that I want to press the Minister further on the same point. He said that the Governm...

The right hon. Gentleman will find that he is satisfied with the scrutiny that is available. It i...

Will the Minister give way?

I will give way for the last time.

I remind the Minister that, around the time of the LIBOR scandal a year ago, a serious proposal b...

The right hon. Gentleman will find that he will be perfectly satisfied with the degree of scrutin...

Does the Minister perceive there to be a problem for very small building societies, because they ...

I have taken to heart the need to allow into the market smaller players, whether they be building...

I suggest to the Minister that he has just ducked the British dilemma that he set out at the begi...

I think that the right hon. Gentleman would concede that what Vickers recommended will advantage ...

The Minister said earlier that capital requirements and the leverage ratio were protections for t...

I do not disagree with the hon. Gentleman’s analysis. A higher leverage ratio is important. Howev...

Does my right hon. Friend agree with me and Andy Haldane that bank account number portability cou...

My hon. Friend is a passionate advocate of that, and I think that what I will say about it will p...

I welcome the Minister’s comments. Will he also table an amendment to recreate the Halifax buildi...

We want to see greater competition and more entrants. The hon. Gentleman will know that in the ca...

This is a Bill, and it can become an Act, so the Minister could table a Government amendment to d...

All I would say is that that is not one of the Government’s proposals. We operate at arm’s length...

I am sorry that the Chancellor has not been able to join us for the debate. The Bill may be calle...

My hon. Friend said, I think, that the timetable was inappropriate. Does he agree that it may als...

Recently I have been looking at a number of Thatcher quotes, given that the Prime Minister mentio...

The hon. Gentleman has mentioned a few times that the Chancellor is not here. Does he regret that...

I presume that is almost an apology for the anti-regulatory approaches historically taken by the ...

In the hon. Gentleman’s preamble, he talked about the shifting of powers to the FSA, and I was so...

The Conservative party, I think, voted in favour of the creation of the FSA. I think even the Con...

In the 1997 debate, I strongly opposed the establishment of the FSA, with its tripartite regulato...

Without in any way casting aspersions on the motives of the Father of the House in voting against...

I opposed it, if I remember correctly, because I said that if the Treasury, the Bank of England a...

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. All I say to the Father of the House is that we are now in a situ...

When I took over my role, I read the Hansard report of the November 1997 debate. I commend it to ...

Conservatives have a tendency to try and rewrite history, but this really takes the biscuit. If t...

Surely, the argument is not about whether regulation is good or bad, but that the tripartite regu...

I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman is telling the full story of what he truly believes abou...

Does the hon. Gentleman recall that back in 1995, when Barings went bust, there was not a run on ...

We will see what happens under the new Financial Conduct Authority, the Prudential Regulation Aut...

rose—

Speaking of history.

Ten minutes ago, before the hon. Gentleman got dragged into a debate about how rubbish the tripar...

For once, I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for wanting to focus on the issues; it is important...

Conservative Members point to times in history when things changed in banking. While my hon. Frie...

My hon. Friend is entirely right. Ducks go quack, cows go moo and Conservatives hate regulation o...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I will make a bit of progress and give way in a minute.

There is not enough in the proposed...

Vickers was absolutely clear in his evidence to the commission about the need for a higher levera...

My hon. Friend is spot on. A bank’s leverage is the ratio of its assets to its equity capital. It...

Will the hon. Gentleman explain why the average leverage ratio for the banking system, which had ...

No. With hindsight it is clear that we need a tough leverage ratio, and I think the hon. Gentlema...

Let me put the question to the hon. Gentleman in another way. Does he regard it as slightly ironi...

We have to learn the lessons of that global financial crisis, one of which is that leverage has c...

Before too much consensus breaks out, may I ask my hon. Friend to say a little more about how he ...

Of course there are ways of ensuring that the building society sector can be accommodated in the ...

Does that attitude not call into question the future of the Co-operative bank? What would the sha...

I do not want any of our banks to be in a position of over-extending themselves, putting at risk ...

The hon. Gentleman has rightly described consumer choice as the main driver of any market. Does h...

The hon. Gentleman may not have noticed it, but there was a bit of a financial storm going on in ...

Does the hon. Gentleman not remember that Lloyds Banking Group needed to be bailed out only becau...

I disagree. I think that there was a high-risk, high-return culture in the banking sector—we saw ...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Not at the moment.

We need improvements in the standards and the culture of our banking sec...

I am trying to follow the hon. Gentleman’s argument, but it has become fatuous. The fact is that ...

If the hon. Gentleman’s analysis is correct, he will no doubt join us in the Division Lobby to in...

rose—

I think I ought to make some progress, and I want to talk about the need for the banking system a...

rose—

Order. I remind Members that there is a 12-minute limit.

5.22 pm

Last July, immediately after its creation, the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards was ...

The Chancellor also said to the commission, in response to the second reserve power, that it woul...

I do not think it is particularly democratic to give the authority directly to the Chancellor of ...

I would like to begin where the Minister began, with this issue of the British dilemma: the relat...

The right hon. Gentleman was a Minister in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills at ...

One of the reasons for having this debate is that when the crisis hit in 2007-08 there was no pro...

I do not buy into the argument that the tools were not in place. In reality, it was not that many...

If the hon. Gentleman believes that the tools were in place, I must refer him to the Chancellor, ...

I am not yet convinced about the reserve power and have many questions. The three banks that actu...

The hon. Gentleman neglects to mention RBS, a universal bank, which needed major intervention to ...

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

I am afraid that I want to make some more progress.

This is not, as the Minister argued, ab...

I asked Harold Macmillan what the secret was of making a good speech in the House of Commons and ...

Does the Father of the House remember that it was President Bill Clinton who relaxed the Glass-St...

Yes, they were. The American banks turned mortgages for people who could not afford to pay the in...

It is a pleasure to follow the Father of the House and to agree with many of the sentiments he ex...

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for allowing me to make my maiden speech during this important debate.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Eastleigh (Mike Thornton) on his maiden speech, which was a re...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

Let me finish the point, and then of course I will give way to the Member who represents the squa...

Does the hon. Lady recognise that as well the hugely important business, which is perhaps based c...

That was the point I was trying to make, and I refer the hon. Gentleman to comments made by my ri...

On pay and reward, does my hon. Friend agree that it is unfair that the vast majority of financia...

I could not agree more. It is also not okay that people in regular branches were pressured to sel...

I add my congratulations to the hon. Member for Eastleigh (Mike Thornton) on his maiden speech. I...

I am glad that my hon. Friend raises that point. Does he agree that if we subsidise anything, we ...

Yes, it does, absolutely. I am going to develop that point in a second, if my hon. Friend will be...

Unfortunately, the banks are not doing a good job of providing loans to small businesses. In part...

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. The two of us have spent much time together wrestling wit...

I think everyone in the House would welcome a step forward in trying to gain some control over th...

Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that some instances of products being mis-sold by the retail ...

Yes, but if we are to get the changes we need, we also need to change the culture in both sectors...

I am greatly enjoying my right hon. Friend’s speech, and I agree with every word of it. Does he n...

I entirely agree with that. I also agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Bassetlaw that it wou...

I shall endeavour not to stray quite so far from the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill as ...

If I may characterise the hon. Gentleman’s argument, it seems to be that a race to the bottom in ...

I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman has mischaracterised what I was trying to say. What I would s...

We have had an interesting and thoughtful debate, which has concentrated on detail, but I think i...

The right hon. Gentleman has raised a point that many people fail to appreciate: the banks lend m...

I do agree, and I know that the hon. Gentleman believes that banks have far too much power to cre...

Does my right hon. Friend agree that one of the characteristics of our banking system is that the...

That is also true. My right hon. Friend listed some of the huge abuses that have been turned to t...

One man has done more than any other to popularise the cause of banking reform. Astonishingly, he...

The hon. Gentleman is fairly youthful, so he may not remember the time when most big banks had lo...

My bank manager is named Guy Birkby, and I am sure that he would not wish to be compared to Dave ...

That was a fascinating speech by my good friend the hon. Member for Wycombe (Steve Baker). I cann...

Does my hon. Friend agree that it is a trifle irksome to listen to the radio or watch television ...

I thank my right hon. Friend for that intervention, and I am just about to mention those great co...

People talk about banking being a very dry subject, but this has been an interesting debate with ...

The Bill matters greatly to my constituents in Glasgow because the financial services sector nort...

Between 1997 and 2010, the broad measure of the money supply, M4, tripled. That new money had to ...

I know that the Prime Minister has been very much a fan of a magic money tree. The Chancellor, by...

I begin by apologising to the Chair and to Members on the Front Bench; due to the vagaries of sno...

rose—

Order. I am lifting the time limit for the remainder of this debate. I call Mr John McDonnell.