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Financial Services Bill

Before my noble friend sits down at the end of his very interesting speech, I suggest that he draws the attention of the Council for Financial Stability to the operations of what are nominally called the Edge Acts in the United States, with which my noble friend may or may not be familiar. It is an amendment to the Federal Reserve named after Senator Edge of New Jersey, which specifically allowed joint-stock banks—commercial banks—to have up to two subsidiaries in different states so long as the one that accepted deposits did not make investments and the one that made investments did not accept deposits. It worked and as far as I know it is still working extremely well.