Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 15 October 2018 to Question 177328 on Bank Services, what plans his Department has to reduce the number of unbanked people in the UK.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government takes financial inclusion very seriously and is working to ensure everyone can have access to useful and affordable financial services, including a bank account.
Under the Payment Accounts Regulations (PAR) 2015, the government has required the nine largest UK current account providers to offer fee-free basic bank accounts to consumers who are either unbanked or who are not eligible for a standard current account.
Basic bank accounts have all the main features of a standard current account, except for an overdraft facility and chequebook, and must be fee-free, even where a standing order or direct debit fails.
In November 2017, the Government also announced the creation of the Financial Inclusion Policy Forum. The Forum’s mission is to ensure that people, regardless of their background or income, have access to useful and affordable financial products and services.
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent meetings (a) he, (b) other Ministers and (c) staff of his Department have had with the FinTech industry on reducing the number of unbanked people in the UK.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government takes financial inclusion very seriously and is working to ensure everyone can have access to useful and affordable financial services, including a bank account.
Under the Payment Accounts Regulations (PAR) 2015, the government has required the nine largest UK current account providers to offer fee-free basic bank accounts to consumers who are either unbanked or who are not eligible for a standard current account.
Basic bank accounts have all the main features of a standard current account, except for an overdraft facility and chequebook, and must be fee-free, even where a standing order or direct debit fails.
In November 2017, the Government also announced the creation of the Financial Inclusion Policy Forum. The Forum’s mission is to ensure that people, regardless of their background or income, have access to useful and affordable financial products and services.
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the Government’s policy is on financial support for UK Fintech companies in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
UK FinTech companies can have confidence that the government is committed to leaving the EU in a way that underpins prosperity and avoids unnecessary disruption and costly cliff edges for businesses. We and the UK regulators are taking the necessary steps to ensure that Financial Services firms are prepared for the unlikely event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal. While there are no plans to provide financial support for UK Fintech companies in this instance, they will continue to benefit from existing government programmes, including a 10-year action plan intended to unlock over £20 billion of investment to finance growth in innovative firms that was announced at Autumn Budget in 2017.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 15 September 2016 to Question 46636, on Concentrix, if he will provide that same information for (a) Enfield North constituency and (b) Enfield.
Answered by Jane Ellison
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold data on the number of tax credit cases awaiting consideration by Concentrix broken down specifically by constituency areas. HMRC is currently focused on resolving the outstanding cases but will be preparing analysis, which will be made available in due course.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment the Financial Conduct Authority has made of the effectiveness of its regulations to ensure record keeping by banks and other financial institutions are not being (a) deleted, (b) manipulated or (c) altered.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
This is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is operationally independent from Government.
The question has been passed on to the FCA. The FCA will reply directly to the Rt Hon Joan Ryan MP by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what consideration the Financial Conduct Authority has given to requests from banks to sign a memorandum of understanding to ensure that financial record keeping regulations in the UK are not being breached.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
This is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is operationally independent from Government.
The question has been passed on to the FCA. The FCA will reply directly to the Rt Hon Joan Ryan MP by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment the Financial Conduct Authority has made of the effectiveness of its regulatory instruments, including enforcement action, in ensuring compliance by banks and other financial institutions regarding record keeping.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
This is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is operationally independent from Government.
The question has been passed on to the FCA. The FCA will reply directly to the Rt Hon Joan Ryan MP by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what consideration the Financial Conduct Authority has given to ensuring that encryption keys to encrypted record keeping data between banks and financial service messaging platforms are held by a third party.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
This is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is operationally independent from Government.
The question has been passed on to the FCA. The FCA will reply directly to the Rt Hon Joan Ryan MP by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment the Financial Conduct Authority has made of the implications for its policies of the statement made by the financial service messaging platform Symphony that they offer Guaranteed Data Deletion; and whether this statement complies with financial regulations on record keeping.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
This is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is operationally independent from Government.
The question has been passed on to the FCA. The FCA will reply directly to the Rt Hon Joan Ryan MP by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the European Securities and Markets Authority on the efficacy of current regulations to protect against the manipulation of the financial markets.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The Treasury is in regular close contact with the FCA and the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) on all issues relating to financial market conduct.
Following benchmark cases on LIBOR, Foreign Exchange and Gold, the government passed legislation to regulate benchmark activities in UK. The administrators and submitters to eight benchmarks, including LIBOR, are now subject to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) standards of governance, controls, accountability, management of conflicts of interest and record keeping. This domestic regime will be superseded by the EU Benchmark Regulation when that enters into force.
The European Parliament and the Council of the EU reached a compromise on an EU Benchmark Regulation on 24 November 2015. The Regulation brings in a set of rules to ensure that benchmark providers in the EU have prior authorisation and are subject to supervision, in line with internationally agreed principles drawn up by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).
The government regularly engages with all the relevant European institutions to ensure that European-level regulations are strong and effective.