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Lending (Regulation) Bill

The hon. Gentleman is once again absolutely right. Out in the marketplace, those who possess a credit card are being exploited to a certain extent. We could have a Bill in its own right on credit cards, but I would like to cover two or three more elements of my Bill. Clause 1 deals with the unsolicited increase in credit card limits. That is permitted under the banking code, but the result of a Which? survey in October showed that 58 per cent. of respondents had had their credit card limit increased without even requesting it. That can, regrettably, lead to unaffordable amounts of credit being made available to consumers.