Financial Services and Markets Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 3:32 pm on 7 September 2022.

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Photo of Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak Conservative, Richmond (Yorks) 3:32, 7 September 2022

Yes, I do: the Minister touched on provisions that increase consumer protection. My hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury spent a lot of time ensuring that consumers would have that protection, particularly with regard to scams, as the Minister outlined in his opening remarks. That is an area that needs attention.

Thirdly, on ringfencing, I suggest that the Government not only accept the recommendations of the independent Skeoch review, but consider going further. I know that this is a Government with a deregulatory zeal for growth, so I suggest two areas in particular: first, to review the threshold limits, which have not been looked at since they were initiated; and secondly, to take a fundamental look at the ringfencing regime in light of the fact that it was established after the financial crisis and that we now have a full stand-alone resolution regime.

It is worth recalling that more than half of Europe’s fintech unicorns are based in the United Kingdom, so it is important that the Bill continues to support innovation. I am pleased that it does so in two specific areas. It builds on our pioneering and world-leading regulatory sandbox to include the opportunity to pilot new sandboxes for distributed ledger technology in financial market infrastructure. That has the potential not only to lower costs and improve efficiency, but to improve financial stability. I am glad that the Government are also proceeding to bring stablecoins into the payments legislation, because that will create the conditions for stablecoins issuers and service providers to operate and grow in the UK.

I ask the Minister and the Government to consider implementing all the fantastic ideas that were contained in the speech by my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury in April regarding blockchain and crypto, notably proceeding with a sovereign gilt issue using distributed ledger technology, but also enabling the trading of exchange-traded notes on crypto on UK exchanges, where we risk falling behind Europe if we do not act.

Why does all this matter? It matters for three specific reasons. The first is jobs. The industry provides more than 1 million jobs, and not just in London and the south-east; two-thirds of those jobs are in places such as Southampton, Chester, Bournemouth, Glasgow, Belfast, Edinburgh and Leeds. It is incredibly important. Secondly, it is one of the most important industries for our economy in terms of contribution to our GDP and tax revenues, and it is something that we as a country are genuinely world-class at. There are only a handful of industries where a country can say that, and financial services is one of those for us. It deserves the support of hon. Members on both sides of this House to ensure its continued success.

Lastly and most importantly, this Bill serves as a template for what the Government want to do across the rest of their business. It takes advantage of the opportunities of Brexit, radically reforms our regulations to support innovation, growth and investment, and, although I would like the Government to go even further, it has my full support.