Clause 183
Banking Bill
5:00 pm
Peter Bone (Wellingborough, Conservative)
I assume that the word “may” in clause 183 is genuine and that it gives discretion to the Bank. That goes to the heart of one of the problems with the Bill and the banking system. A serious compliance failure by one of the major banks that is published could cause a run against that bank. Not to disclose such a failure might, in the long run, be better, but if the bank got into serious trouble, the Government would be in a great deal of trouble because the bank did not publish details of the failure earlier. Do the Government think that such things should be disclosed, or should they be kept quiet to stop the damage being done to the relevant bank?