Clause 3
Banking Bill
12:15 pm
Mark Hoban (Shadow Minister, Treasury; Fareham, Conservative)
I am grateful to the Minister for clarifying the purpose of the amendment and new clause 9. Nevertheless, I want to question him further. I think that he was trying to draw a distinction between specific assistance to an institution and system-wide support. He cited the recapitalisation package, but that has been accepted by only a handful of banks, so the credit guarantee scheme is available only to those banks that signed up for it.
I shall broaden the matter out a little. Last week, the Bank of England published a consultation document on the types of financial assistance that it might provide to banks. On the whole, they are system-wide schemes. They include the operational facilities that it proposes using to replace the standing facilities; the statutory discount window facility that will enable banks to borrow, given security against a wide range of collateral at any time, the type of collateral reflecting the size of the drawing; and the possibility of permanent long-term repos against high-quality private sector securities. As far as I am aware, they are system-wide schemes. Do the Government believe that they would fall outside the definition of financial assistance and that they have no mind to accept new clause 9?