Banking Bill
10:56 am
Ian Pearson: I want to make two points in response, the first on consultation generally and the second specifically on creditor rights. As I indicated, there has been extensive public consultation: three rounds of formal public consultation, a number of stakeholder workshops and meetings in February, July and August 2008 and the publication of draft clauses for the most complex part of the Bill—the special resolution regime. During those consultations, we had more than 200 responses from a mixture of stakeholders, including banks, building societies, insurers and bodies representing citizens, consumers, workers, businesses, legal insurance professionals and credit unions. I believe that the Bill has been consulted on extensively.
With particular reference to creditors—the hon. Member for Fareham talked about them—we have paid very close attention to stakeholder feedback from the latest round of consultation. For instance, in response to that feedback we have created in the Bill a framework for a range of creditor safeguards to protect set-off and netting arrangements and to protect creditors in the event of a partial transfer. We will continue to engage extensively with stakeholders over the coming months.
I recognise that creditor rights is a very important issue, and that is one of the reasons why I announced on 9 October the establishment of a new expert liaison group to help to prepare the secondary legislation for the special resolution regime. The Committee will be aware that a number of the key elements of the safeguards will come in under secondary legislation. The expert liaison group will be formed from representatives of the banking sector, legal experts and members of the authorities, and I have written to industry experts inviting them to participate in the group. As I have said previously, I hope that we can work effectively together to co-produce the secondary legislation that will be required to ensure that we get it right.