Money Transfer Accounts

Jim Cunningham Excerpts

Wednesday 17th July 2013 Westminster Hall

[Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Bayley. I also place on record my appreciation of my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Rushanara Ali), not only for securing the debate, but for championing the cause—raising awareness, expressing concern and bringing MPs of all political parties together to ensure that the issue reaches a far wider audience. I genuinely appreciate that. She said much about this banking policy and how it will affect people in Somalia and other countries, and I want to concentrate my comments on the impact in my constituency and similar towns in the United Kingdom.

As long ago as November last year, I wrote to HSBC about one of my constituents, Mr Shamshad Ali—I have the letter with me. He has a money service business called Sterling Currency Exchange Ltd and is the general secretary of the remittance association of the United Kingdom. HSBC decided unilaterally to close his bank account, because it no longer wished to operate in the sector. I worked with Shamshad to get the bank to change its mind, but to no avail. He and I then worked together to find an account with another bank, again to no avail. As Shamshad pointed out, we tried the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest, both funded through the public purse and in receipt of much public money, but they too refused him. He now has to operate his business in conjunction with another business, which still has an account with Barclays—but time is running out, and that might well end as well.

The Government need to know about the serious consequences, which include the closure of good businesses, as my hon. Friend pointed out, at the cost of many thousands of jobs throughout the United Kingdom and certainly of a number of jobs in Rochdale. There is also a direct impact on people in my community. Migrant workers, many of them professionals, many on whom the Rochdale economy relies, depend on those independent businesses to be able to send money back to their country of origin. Those workers are being turned off working in towns such as Rochdale, which concerns me.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Rushanara Ali) for securing the debate and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Rochdale (Simon Danczuk) for giving way. I, too, have many people from Somalia and other parts of the world living in my constituency. The important thing, which we often learn, is that the family back home rely on the money being sent to them to survive. If they are not allowed to survive in that way, they go underground and are driven to other means. The sooner the Minister takes the matter up and talks to the banks in this country, the better, because not only are people in Somalia affected, but Somalians and other people who have businesses in this country, through transactions and jobs.

[Simon Danczuk]

That is exactly the point that I am leading on to. People in my community send money back to their families—in this instance, in my constituency, to Pakistan, Kashmir and Bangladesh. At this important time of Ramadan, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Bow pointed out, people rely on the businesses that we are discussing to help them send charitable contributions to the countries from which they originate. We should not underestimate that. Friends and families out in other countries may be exceptionally poor and reliant on such charitable donations, in particular at this important time of year of Ramadan, to help them to celebrate Eid and to buy new clothes, so that they can have a reasonable time at a key point in the Islamic calendar. As a result of the changes, my constituents, instead of being able to use a good, local and independent firm, which complies with all the regulations, will have to use one of the banks, Western Union or MoneyGram.