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Financial Services Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, and to the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, for their comments. The noble Baroness questioned whether Clause 12 was necessary. I agree with the noble Baroness that the clause is drafted widely and should be used with care. It is the sort of clause that should be kept under review when it comes to implementation. However, there can be no doubt that the experiences and the pain of the past two years have shown us that we must ensure that financial institutions are structured in a manner that means that they can never again place such extraordinarily large calls on the taxpayer and society. In answer to the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, there is no intention that these powers should be used more broadly than to regulate banks. However, in the early stages of the financial crisis, in late 2008 and early 2009, our concerns were not limited to banks. Other major financial institutions were beginning to excite concern and were the subject of regular meetings between myself, my officials and representatives of the FSA. That experience taught me that the powers proposed here would be a valuable addition to the regulatory responses available in order to protect the interests of savers, those with insurance policies and those with other forms of investment. It is with that in mind that the clause has been drafted. Amendment 155 agreed. Clause 12, as amended, agreed. Clause 13 : Power of FSA to prohibit, or require disclosure of, short selling Amendment 167A Clause 13 : Power of FSA to prohibit, or require disclosure of, short selling Amendment 167A Moved by