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Banking Bill

My Lords, in moving government Amendment 15, I will also speak to government Amendments 17 and 66. In Committee, the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, proposed an amendment to widen the remit of the Banking Liaison Panel. I think that we agreed that we were not too far from each other on this. I explained, and I think the noble Baroness agreed, that it would not be appropriate for the Banking Liaison Panel to provide advice to the Treasury on the operation of the SRR powers, such as drafting and placing a transfer or associated instrument. We both agreed that the panel’s remit should include the effectiveness of the policy and the powers in general of the SRR. One of the noble Baroness’s main concerns was to ensure that the panel has a role in monitoring the market for unintended consequences of these new powers. Government Amendment 15 provides the panel with a broadly defined purpose to advise the Treasury on the effect of the special resolution regime both on the banks that could be subject to it and on the wider financial services market. In addition to this broad purpose, government Amendment 17 provides the panel with a statutory remit to advise the Treasury on the code of practice. This meets another of the noble Baroness’s requests in Committee. Although we have tackled this from a slightly different direction from the one that she proposed, I believe that it meets her concerns. The amendment also provides that the Banking Liaison Panel should advise the Treasury on the exercise of the power to change laws under Clause 75, with the exception of cases in which the exercise is carried out in connection with a particular use of a stabilisation power. Government Amendment 66 is consequential to government Amendments 15 and 17. The Banking Liaison Panel’s remit will extend to building societies because the special resolution regime generally applies to building societies, as provided for by Clause 83. However, a consequential amendment to Clause 82 has been made to ensure that the panel can also advise the Treasury on the effect of the powers on bank holding companies and their counterparties. As I have stated before, the creation of the expert liaison group has been welcomed by interested parties and already provides invaluable advice to the Government on the development of policy and the impact of their powers on the market. I hope that, when it is reconstituted as the Banking Liaison Panel, it will continue with this good work. The government amendments proposed today ensure that this work is given a firm and broad statutory basis. Given the breadth of the Government’s response to the concerns that she raised in Committee, I respectfully invite the noble Baroness not to move Amendment 16.