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Banking Bill

We have some sympathy with the amendments. We were not as critical as the noble Baroness about the use of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 in respect of Landsbanki; we thought that the circumstances justified it. We have been very struck by the response of the authorities in Iceland, who felt that the fact that the powers had been exercised under an anti-terrorism Act justified a sense of grievance and began a legal action which, I gather, has now been withdrawn, because they felt that the powers had been improperly used. Everybody agrees that it is appropriate that the powers exist; the only question is the legal context in which they exist. The logical place for the powers, when dealing with banks, is in this Bill, rather than in an anti-terrorism Act. As the noble Baroness said, we could not put the powers in this Bill and simply delete them from the Act, because there are other circumstances that have nothing to do with financial stability in which we may want to use them. However, when dealing with financial and banking stability issues, the logical place for such powers is in the Bill.