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Banking Bill

My Lords, I first congratulate my noble friend on working for a Canadian bank, a jurisdiction in which the experience of banks has been commendable by comparison with so many other jurisdictions. We were very fortunate that Sir Philip Hampton agreed to stand down as chairman of UKFI and accept the invitation from the board of the Royal Bank of Scotland to become its chairman. We will make every effort to ensure that there is good understanding about the role of UKFI. We have been very clear as to the objectives of UKFI. For my part, I am very keen that UKFI should be an exemplar as an investor. The noble Lord, Lord Northbrook, and I share a background in fund management. We have probably both seen examples of good investor behaviour engagement and too many examples of inadequate ones. I hope that UKFI will set new standards. That also speaks to the point made by the noble Viscount, Lord Eccles. There is global recognition that bank accounting and reporting had certain shortcomings. That is being addressed by regulators and accounting standards bodies throughout the world. We will encourage improvement in that respect. I would expect the Treasury to match very best practice in its own reporting. If the accounting and regulatory professions and bodies take us to a further phase of new, fuller and more comprehensive reporting, I would very much hope that the Treasury would act in alignment with those new standards.