My Lords, I thank the Minister for his supportive response and my noble friends Lord Trenchard and Lady Kramer for their support. I am delighted to hear that my noble friend Lady Kramer will be pursuing this aspect as part of the banking review; I make the simple point that it is obvious that it should be easy to move accounts. I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, for her support.
I would not say that I was surprised but I am interested to note that the Minister cited yet another example of protectionist practices in the EU. To the extent that what he described is there to stop the transfer of such information or to make it unacceptable, it is clearly a barrier to trade. Anyone in the financial services industry who thinks that the single market means a free and competitive one has another thought coming, because the practical barriers to trade and financial services in the EU are substantial at a retail level. I am not sure if the Minister is right, however, because the law as it stands is that it is up to each bank to do what it wants to or feels is necessary and adequate to comply with its “know your customer” due diligence, and I would have thought that if the new bank got all this information it could make it a decision that it thought was sufficient.
I say to my noble friend Lord Trenchard that my amendment provided 10 working days for the information to be transferred once you had given notice that you were going to move your account.