Lord Eatwell
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Banking: Government Shares
Lord Eatwell Excerpts(13 years, 5 months ago)
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Lord Sassoon
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend as she enables me to point to the mandate which UK Financial Investments was given by the previous Government. It was that in creating and protecting value for the taxpayer it must have due regard to both financial stability and competition. At all stages, whether it is the involvement of the Independent Commission on Banking or the mandate of UKFI, competition is at the centre.
Lord Eatwell
My Lords, the noble Lord has mentioned Project Merlin on a number of occasions. Will he explain to the House why the lending targets set for the banks under Project Merlin and announced to this House have now been reduced by a good 10 per cent? Why are the Government fiddling the figures?
Lord Sassoon
Number one, this is a Question about the disposal of bank shares; number two, I would not believe everything that you read on the front page of the Financial Times every day.