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Financial Services Bill

The noble Lord, Lord Whitty, asked opposition parties to indicate whether they supported his amendments in principle. I do not know whether the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, will speak, but I am happy to make clear from these Benches that we support them. Appropriation of payments may sound technical, but it is actually a rather nasty, dirty little secret for too many banks and credit card companies, which are only too happy quickly to take the money from the account where it costs the customer most. I pay particular tribute to the Nationwide, which does not do that and has taken a lead on that, and to other banks which do the same. We support the noble Lord’s amendments.