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Saving Gateway Accounts Bill

I welcome the noble Baroness’s invitation for me to provide further clarity. Our proposed processes here are designed to allow account providers the security and comfort of knowing that they will not be required to open an account when they have reason to suspect that a person is not eligible. In meeting the requirement, we will expect account providers to do no more than to carry out their normal account-opening checks. We do not expect them to carry out any additional checks—for example, to establish an applicant’s benefit or tax credit status, their compliance with residency conditions or whether they have previously held an account with another provider. The essence of what we are trying to do here is to make the provision of such accounts as attractive as possible to banks and others. We hope that that will work to support the saving gateway initiative.