Clause 191
Banking Bill
5:45 pm
Ian Pearson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Dudley South, Labour)
This is yet another backstop. I perfectly accept the logic of the hon. Gentleman’s argument. It is not the policy intention that any value should be attached to a payment system being recognised as such. However, simply to deter operators of payment systems from trying to exploit the new framework in such a way it is necessary to impose a criminal offence on anyone who wilfully misrepresents a payment system as being recognised when it is not. It is highly unlikely that someone would want to do that, but I am advised that it is helpful to have a deterrent there. That is what the clause does.