Baroness Kramer
Main Page: Baroness Kramer (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Kramer's debates with the Cabinet Office
(9 years, 4 months ago)
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Lord Bridges of Headley
As so often, the noble Lord speaks with a great amount of insight and experience, I am sure, on this matter.
Baroness Kramer (LD)
I wonder if the Minister could answer the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft, on the impact on small investors. Would he not agree that ever higher speed high-frequency trading, together with dark pools, has in effect rigged the trade in financial instruments against small investors?
Lord Bridges of Headley
I reiterate that the PRA, and Andrew Bailey in a speech last month, drew attention to a lot of these issues. I hope the noble Baroness takes some consolation from that and from what I said about the FCA. On smaller investors, as I said, the Government are looking at this issue. I draw attention to the Foresight report which said,
“transaction costs have fallen for both retail and institutional traders”.
We therefore need to look at this in a balanced and proportionate way.