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Banking Bill

My Lords, before my noble friend replies, let me just say that Amendment 8 refers to, "““how the special resolution objectives are to be understood and achieved””." In relation to objective 1, paragraph 5 of the draft code of practice states: "““The intention of the first objective is to (a) recognise the wider systemic risks posed by the potential or actual failure of any institution, or group of institutions; and (b) to require the Authorities to have regard to the likely systemic impact of their actions (including a decision not to act) when implementing a SRR tool””." That pushes us hard in the direction that the code of practice must consider possible effects on competition. If the number of major institutions in the banking sector is reduced from the current four, clearly the effect on competition of any one of those, God forfend, getting into a position where the regime is implemented would be far-reaching. That was debated in Committee and I hope that we shall have some assurance that the possible effects on competition will be spelt out in some way and not left unstated.