Clause 186
Banking Bill
5:15 pm
Colin Breed (Shadow Minister, Treasury; South East Cornwall, Liberal Democrat)
In the past, we have talked about the operator being an entity and said that therefore the entity can or cannot carry on. This clause specifically refers to a person. Unless the Bank of England has authorised or qualified that person, it is difficult to see how it can disqualify that person. Is it intended that people who are in some sort of management position of responsibility in these payment systems will have to be authorised by the Bank and then that authorisation could be withdrawn, or will the Bank of England effectively be able to override any service agreement that an individual bank has entered into in respect of its personnel? In other words, can it in some way insist that the bank disqualifies the person who is operating in that way? That would be a massive change in the way in which any regulator operates in relation to the institutions under its powers. At the moment, yes, a regulator can regulate a company, a bank, a business and everything else, but unless it is going to specifically authorise individual people and they are going to have to maintain that sort of qualification or authorisation, it is difficult to see how the Bank of England can do that.