Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill

Debate between Lord Tyrie and John Bercow

Wednesday 11th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Tyrie]

The fact that an individual is found responsible should not in any way exculpate the institution from its own responsibilities. On the other hand, a key recommendation of the Banking Commission was to restore individual responsibility. To return to a situation where it is primarily the institution that carries the can for what had been a series of individual pieces of bad behaviour would be a profound mistake. There is a lot behind the exchange we have just had that I am not going to go into now, but which we thought about quite deeply on the commission. I shall now move on as there are a few more remarks I want to make about this group of amendments.

Everyone now seems to be agreed that the APR adds little or nothing, yet over the past few weeks we have discovered that the discredited APR will survive in legislation. In doing that, the regulators are perpetuating a myth that the APR affords any real protection. It will continue to apply to several groups. First, about 20,000 people in the financial services industry outside banking will still be covered, mainly in fund management and insurance.

This is unfinished business. The Banking Commission had the remit to look only at banking. It would be absurd to retain a system for one part of financial services that has so clearly failed in another. The Government and Parliament both need to encourage the regulator to look at this and do what is necessary to extend the coverage of the new regime and to remove the APR from other parts of financial services. To rely on the APR is asking for trouble.

It is also regrettable that the APR will remain in a few isolated pockets within the banking industry. This is because the APR will continue to apply to firms’ LIBOR submitters and to persons with anti-money laundering responsibilities in banks. This amounts, I gather, to only a few dozen people, but I think it would be far better if we removed what amounts to “triple running”. We will have three layers: the senior persons regime, now called the senior managers regime, licensing, now called certification, and the APR in the case of these people. The extra APR layer confers no extra protection, but adds bureaucracy and creates a business cost. There will be plenty of scope for legal wrangling in the event of a regulatory failure, given the great scope for confusion, and for an equal measure of recrimination by regulators who will say they were asked to do too much by Parliament. Banks will have a point when they complain about that. For all those reasons, I hope that the Government will come back to this issue and remove the APR from banking entirely in due course.

The Banking Commission’s proposals do not guarantee better standards. Much will depend on the judgment of regulators and the common sense of the banks, but identifying responsibility for key roles offers a much better prospect of higher standards than does retaining the APR. The commissioners are delighted that our proposals on this are now going to be put on the statute book.

[Mr Speaker]

The hon. Gentleman’s speech is characterised, as always, by a combination of scholarship and erudition. May I just inquire whether we are now nearer to the end of his speech than to the beginning?

[Mr Tyrie]

I can give you a firm assurance, Mr Speaker, that I am coming very close to the end of my remarks. Indeed, I am no closer than I would have been before that intervention, unless I had been told to sit down, because I really am almost at the end.

I just want to say a word about the Opposition amendment before I sit down. It draws on a number of the Banking Commission’s proposals and, by seeking to put it on the face of the Bill, the Opposition have contributed something by forcing the Government to think again about their rejection of our proposals on licensing. The amendment was therefore probably worth while. However, the Government have now thought again and are implementing our proposals.

There are two aspects of Lords amendment 41 that would make me cautious about supporting it. The first is it would require regulators to pre-approve all people covered by licensing—or what is now going to be called certification. I fear that would risk recreating many of the problems we had with the APR—the box-ticking bureaucratic culture that we are trying to get rid of.

My other concern with the amendment is that it appears to mix up licensing with the professionalisation of the banking industry. It would be imprudent to link professionalisation to licensing too closely. Licensing needs to happen now. Professionalisation is not a substitute for it. Even if banking is something that could acquire the characteristics of a profession—which many people are not yet convinced of—it would, as the commission reported, take a generation to build that sense of a professional standard.

For those reasons, although I strongly sympathise with the intent of the Opposition amendment, it is not a Banking Commission proposal and I shall not be supporting it. The House could do better by implementing the commission’s proposals, which are now embodied in Government amendments.

LIBOR (FSA Investigation)

Debate between Lord Tyrie and John Bercow

Thursday 28th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. A very large number of hon. and right hon. Members are seeking to catch my eye, but I remind the House that there is significantly subscribed business to follow, under the auspices of the Backbench Business Committee; therefore, I must appeal for short questions and short answers.

[Mr Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) (Con)]

What is now left of trust between Parliament and the banks? Barclays and probably other banks were profiting by lying and rigging the markets at a crucial time in the last crisis, when the Government had a right to expect that they would supply the then Chancellor with reliable information on the basis of which to conduct policy. The Treasury Committee will now investigate properly. Under the current legislation, as the Chancellor has pointed out, the Financial Services Authority has no power to bring a criminal prosecution in relation to not only LIBOR, but derivatives. Will the Chancellor undertake now to amend the Financial Services Bill to include derivatives and LIBOR in the legislation before Parliament?

G20

Debate between Lord Tyrie and John Bercow

Monday 7th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Given the intense interest in this statement and the fact that there are two further statements to follow, brevity is essential.

[Mr Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) (Con)]

The European Commission has estimated that implementation of the financial transactions tax would reduce gross domestic product in the euro area by 1.8%. Of course, that would hit the UK disproportionately hard at a time when we need more growth, not less. Does the Prime Minister agree that, of all times, now is not the appropriate moment to consider such a controversial measure?

Cabinet Secretary Report (Government Response)

Debate between Lord Tyrie and John Bercow

Wednesday 19th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I remind right hon. and hon. Members who came into the Chamber after the start of the statement—there were several of them on both sides of the House—that they certainly should not expect to be called. It would be much better if they did not stand. This is an Opposition day and there is pressure on business, so brevity is of the essence.

[Mr Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) (Con)]

I warmly welcome the Leader of the House’s statement. In it, he said that senior civil servants “accepted that there should have been much tighter procedures within the Department”. Will he say specifically what is wrong with existing procedures, and what steps he is taking to ensure that the failing lies with those procedures rather than with the action or inaction of the civil servants themselves?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Tyrie and John Bercow

Tuesday 6th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the Chancellor. We do not want the slowest growth, but neither do we want the slowest questions and answers.

[Mr Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) (Con)]

The Chancellor has made it clear that he thinks that a monetary union requires a fiscal union. Can a credible fiscal union be put in place without a treaty change?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Tyrie and John Bercow

Wednesday 18th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) (Con)]

rose—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I cannot understand why the House does not wish to hear Mr Andrew Tyrie.

[Mr Tyrie]

I was rather impressed by that last answer, but I will draw the Prime Minister on to something else. Yesterday the Government announced plans to reform the second Chamber. Can he tell the House whether he will use all means necessary, including the Parliament Acts, to protect the coalition’s legislative programme?

Autumn Forecast

Debate between Lord Tyrie and John Bercow

Monday 29th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

A lot of Back Benchers want to say something and I would like to accommodate them, but there is important business to follow in the form of Backbench-led debates, so brevity is of the essence from the Back Benches and the Front Benches alike.

[Mr Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) (Con)]

In June, the Red Book was forecasting that the savings ratio would remain broadly steady at about 6% for the next five years, which is quite near its long-run average for the previous 40 years. On page 67 of the most recent document however, the new forecast assumes a fall in the savings ratio to just over half that, and for the remainder of the Parliament, at only 3%. Is the Chancellor worried about that fall in the savings ratio, and will he consider measures to address it?

Financial Assistance (Ireland)

Debate between Lord Tyrie and John Bercow

Monday 22nd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. There is enormous interest but some pressure on time, so brevity from Back Benchers and Front Benchers alike is vital.

[Mr Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) (Con)]

I think that the public were shocked to discover that the UK was going to be bailing out a eurozone member, not just through the IMF or bilateral loans, but through the European stabilisation mechanism—that is, through the EU budget. Will the Chancellor reassure the House that he will seek to block British participation in any replenishment of the €60 billion mechanism?

Office of Tax Simplification

Debate between Lord Tyrie and John Bercow

Tuesday 20th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The opening contributions of the Minister and the shadow Chief Secretary were a little on the long side. Many people want to take part. What I require is brevity—a textbook example of which can now be provided by the Chairman of the Treasury Committee, Mr Andrew Tyrie.

[Mr Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) (Con)]

I am not so sure about that, Mr Speaker.

I warmly welcome anything that simplifies the tax system; I think we all do. The Chancellor described the new office as a

“a permanent force for a simpler tax system”,

but he has appointed it initially for only one Parliament. Can the Minister explain why? What is to be the annual budget of the office’s permanent staff, and will permanent appointments be subject to scrutiny by the Treasury Committee?