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Banking Bill

Amendment 159 seeks to extend the contingency funding arrangements to foreign branch banks. We discussed the position of branches of foreign banks in earlier amendments and I now come to their impact on the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. My amendment adds a paragraph to the list of matters which contingency funding regulations may cover, so that arrangements can be made for branches of foreign banks which are allowed to accept deposits in the UK to contribute. It is clear from the Icesave example that the Financial Services Compensation Scheme had an important role to play in making sure that UK depositors received a return of their funds, both in respect of the amounts which should have been paid by Icelandic authorities and the extra amounts that were paid. In another place the Minister was fond of defending various aspects of the Bill on the grounds of future-proofing it against problems that might arise. My amendments are not even future-proofing; they are simply dealing with situations that have already arisen and carrying those into the possible new contingency funding arrangements. If contingency funding is introduced—and we will debate that shortly—foreign banks which take deposits in the UK should be included within its scope. I beg to move.