New Clause 2
Saving Gateway Accounts Bill
10:00 am
Stephen Ladyman (South Thanet, Labour)
I fear that some banks will rely on the generous bonus as a way of attracting people into these accounts and that they will take the same view as the bankers who gave evidence, which is that any rate of interest that they could possibly offer will be dwarfed by the bonus, so it is not worth paying it. They may then say, “Okay, we won’t give you any interest, but we’ll transfer your money at the end of this account into a savings account that gives a generous rate of interest.” They might take that approach, but we should not be encouraging them to rely on that big bonus. We should be trying to put as much pressure on them as possible at least to pay a low level of interest during the maturity period.