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Banking Bill

It is in circumstances in which the Bank is in action but not necessarily operating under all the formal structures that we have in Part 5. The noble Baroness is all too well aware that the Bank has an oversight position now; within the framework of that oversight circumstance, we want that to continue. The present position has no statutory backing. The Bank to date has chosen to oversee the main wholesale and retail payment systems in the UK and to participate actively in the co-operative international oversight system. It holds regular, usually quarterly, formal meetings with individual systems and is otherwise in frequent contact with them, monitoring their performance and investigating incidents as they arise. Through that analysis, the Bank proposes appropriate actions to mitigate risks arising in the systems. It publishes its finding and assessments in an annual payment systems oversight report, but it has no powers to ensure that risk-mitigating systems are employed. We expect the Bank to continue its activity, but the Committee will recognise the importance of the fact that the Bank is doing it on a non-statutory basis, which is why it has no direct statutory powers. Under the framework of this Bill, the Bank’s position is considerably strengthened and given a statutory basis. That is the reason for the clause. Clause 203 agreed. Clauses 204 to 212 agreed.