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Banking Bill

My Lords, we support this amendment. The noble Lord, Lord Hoyle, made a powerful case, especially as regards trust, which I shall discuss in a minute, and ensuring that banking services are available, particularly in disadvantaged areas. I am sorry that the noble Lord, Lord Mandelson, is no longer in his place. He looked in a few minutes ago. It would have been good to have him listening to this discussion, although we read with great interest the lead story in the Observer on Sunday on this topic, with which he is probably not totally unassociated. Trust is a great problem for our banking system and for the Post Office in particular. The noble Lord, Lord Hoyle, talked about post office depositors who did not have a car. However, if I may put it this way, they are driving, often with their eyes shut, towards a level crossing with no gates, where the red lights are flashing and the alarm bells are ringing about the Bank of Ireland. British savers have already had one serious shock from Icelandic banks where the FSA and the Government failed to warn or act until it was too late. I am afraid that the message from the markets about Ireland is equally chilling. The other day, the noble Lord, Lord Myners, was a little out of touch with where gilt markets have been lately. I should explain that long-term 10-year bonds in Germany are yielding 3.26 per cent today. They are yielding 3.7 per cent in the UK and 5.57 per cent in Ireland. That means that the Irish Government are having to pay a 75 per cent higher interest rate than Germany to borrow money, and even 50 per cent more than ourselves.