Banking Commission Report

David Hamilton Excerpts

Monday 19th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

Yes, I do, and, to be fair, the banks themselves acknowledge that they withdrew from the high street too much. We want to get back to more of that face-to-face banking that served our country well for many decades. As I have said, the banks acknowledge that, and they have come together to create the business growth fund, which will invest in new start-up businesses. They have also issued a new code of conduct to enable them to get back to the high street banking that we remember from the past.

[Mr David Hamilton (Midlothian) (Lab)]

On the subject of the personal responsibility of directors, I should like to draw the House’s attention to Fannie Mae in America, some of whose directors are being charged and, if found guilty, could face prison. Is there anything in the Chancellor’s proposals that could put directors in this country in the same boat, in that they could be sent to prison if they were found guilty of doing something wrong?

[Mr Osborne]

There is nothing specifically about that in the Vickers report, but the Financial Services Authority has done an investigation into what happened at the Royal Bank of Scotland, and has made specific recommendations on the law regarding bank directors. It turns out that the laws were inadequate to help the authorities to investigate specific individuals at RBS and HBOS, so we are going to look at the recommendation, which came to us only recently, and see whether we can implement it, to ensure that individuals as well as institutions can be held responsible for their actions.