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Banking Bill

I am so persuaded. The only point that I wish to make to the Minister is that, if he were a lecturer at Harvard Business School and he described, as he did, the balance of responsibilities of companies’ directors and the auditors’ reviewing duty, everyone would have been very impressed and would have thought that it was a very sensible system. There is only one slight flaw, in that that was the system in place when this complete world calamity occurred, the basis of which was the production of incorrect accounts by the banks. Therefore, it does not quite work in the way that he described. I hope that between now and Report he will reflect on what can be done to give the public at large, the media, and Members of this Committee and your Lordships’ House more confidence that the information provided by banks is truly timely and accurate, because that certainly has not been the case in the past six months. Amendment 203A withdrawn.