Financial Services Bill

Debate between Lord Stewartby and Lord Peston

Monday 26th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stewartby]

My Lords, I must be very brief and I shall speak only once. I want to say something in support of my noble friend Lord Flight, who made a very strong case. I have never been able to understand why financial advisers alone have no longstop for their potential liability in future years. I hope that this opportunity of having legislation which is relevant can be taken to set that right.

[Lord Peston]

Perhaps I could just ask my question now, please. When the noble Lord, Lord Flight, talked about financial advisers, was he talking only about people who advise and receive a payment for their advice, or does his amendment cover those who give advice without payment?

Financial Services Bill

Debate between Lord Stewartby and Lord Peston

Monday 8th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Peston]

My Lords, the noble Lord has introduced his amendment as a probing amendment, which I take to mean that it is meant to be educative. My natural tendency is to agree with him, but I have great difficulty in that I do not have the faintest idea what he is talking about. In particular, I do not know what crowd funding is. The amendment says it should have,

“the meaning given in section 417”,

but there is no Section 417 in any of the documents that I have. It would help me enormously if he could extend my education and tell me what this is all about.

[Lord Stewartby]

My Lords, I, too, would like some assistance from my noble friend. It is not easy to understand, in large parts of this Bill, what it is trying to get at. I raise this under discussion of Clause 6 because that is what permits the transfer of regulation of consumer and small business credit from the Office of Fair Trading to the new Financial Conduct Authority.

I have had an approach about this from the Finance & Leasing Association. They told me that they do not seek an amendment to the Bill, rather a commitment by the Government to a sensible timetable, to ensure the Government get the rules right and avoid the loss of important consumer protections. This is because the Government have set a very ambitious target date of April 2014 for the creation of a new regime for credit regulation. They propose a twin-track approach which will include a slimmed-down version of the Consumer Credit Act with enhanced powers. The Government say they want to transfer as much as possible of the CCA and associated OFT guidance into this new rule book by April 2014. However the detail of the new rule book will not be consulted on until the second half of 2013, and the final rules will only be available in March 2014. This makes the implementation of an April 2014 date virtually impossible. I would be grateful for enlightenment and assistance from my noble friend.

Financial Services Bill

Debate between Lord Stewartby and Lord Peston

Tuesday 10th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Peston]

My Lords, I was hoping that the noble Lord, Lord Flight, would speak at much greater length on this matter, because I find this whole section of the Bill very difficult to understand. The notes on clauses—I do not know whether noble Lords have bothered to take a copy—are about the worst I have seen in my life. They simply repeat the clauses, with no explanation whatever. Therefore, I would like to ask, via the Minister—I am not sure how one does this in Committee —whether the central point here is to deal with an emergency where the emergency is such that you cannot wait? The noble Lord, Lord Flight, has not given us an example. I have had great difficulty thinking of one. Perhaps he could tell me later what particular sort of emergency he has in mind. The great stock market crash of 1929 is a relevant event from the point of view of financial instability. I am sure the noble Lord, Lord Flight, knows that Irving Fisher, then the world’s greatest economist, said at the time that there was no danger whatever of the stock market crashing, it would go on rising considerably.

If that situation repeats itself, our intervention would be too late. That is the problem. The real point is, technically, whether we could ever be early enough. Therefore, I just want to make sure that I fully understand what the noble Lord, Lord Flight, is saying, when he recommends this amendment, which otherwise sounds fairly sensible to me.

[Lord Stewartby]

My Lords, I would like to add a word to what the noble Lord, Lord Peston, has said, in particular to ask my noble friend Lord Flight about the frequency with which this situation is likely to happen. Would it be an exceptionally rare event, because that may affect the way in which one approaches it?