Financial Services

Vicky Ford Excerpts

Thursday 26th April 2018 Westminster Hall

[Vicky Ford (Chelmsford) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the financial services and the impact on the UK economy.

It is a privilege to serve under your leadership, Sir David. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting time to discuss this important matter, and the 16 Members who supported the application. They all agree that the financial services sector is of specific importance and that the House should set aside proper time to discuss the issues that affect it.

Today is of course a very quiet day in this place, and time for the debate was allocated only last week. Many Members have given me their apologies because they cannot be here due to previous constituency commitments, and a bit of a gremlin in the parliamentary IT system unfortunately meant that the debate was advertised on the Parliament website only last night. Fortunately, I have received many comments in the past few days from stakeholders representing literally millions of people about the importance of this debate, and it is really important that we point out to the public that the fact that not many Members are present right now does not mean that many of them do not care about this issue— they do.

I will address the financial services sector in its own right and its importance to the wider economy, lay out some of the many considerations that the Brexit negotiations bring for the sector, and raise some specific actions that the Government may wish to consider taking. Fundamentally, we know from history how important it is to get the regulatory environment for financial services right, and it is important that we, as legislators, focus on those issues.

London is the leading international financial centre. Some 1.1 million people are employed directly in financial services, and the number of people employed in the sector increases to nearly 2.3 million when other professional services are added. One in 14 people working in Britain today works in financial and professional services. Those jobs are not just in the City of London: Manchester is a leader in legal services, as is Birmingham in accountancy; Edinburgh has a global reputation for fund management; and Northern Ireland is increasingly an area of expertise for vital back-office and middle-office functions. Two thirds of financial services jobs are based outside London. In fact, 21 cities and towns across the country have more than 10,000 people working in the industry.

More than 3,000 jobs in my constituency are in financial services, many of them in insurance, and many of my constituents commute to London to work in the sector. It is estimated that, across the country, banking employs more than 400,000 people, insurance more than 300,000, management consultancy more than half a million, accountancy 360,000, and legal services 340,000.

But this is not just about jobs: the financial services sector is a massive contributor to the public purse. TheCityUK estimates that the sector paid more than £72 billion in tax last year—11% of total British tax receipts and 4.5% of our GDP. Some £31 billion of that came from income tax and national insurance contributions. The banking sector alone paid £35.4 billion, of which £17 billion was from non-British banks that have chosen to locate here.

The sector is key to our trade. Of every £100 generated in our economy, £11 comes from financial services—it is among Britain’s largest industries. According to the Office for National Statistics, UK-based financial and related professional services generated a trade surplus of more than £80 billion in 2015—larger than the combined trade surplus of all other industries. It is fair to say that British financial and related professional services firms are the face of British businesses around the globe. A large proportion of that trade is with our partners in Europe; more than £27 billion of UK financial services exports go to the EU. Maintaining that trade and the jobs and tax it brings matters hugely to our economic prosperity.

Access to financial services products makes a real difference to real lives. Buying a house and taking on a mortgage is the single largest financial decision most people will ever make. Two thirds of families in the UK own their own home. There are 11 million mortgages across the country. Furthermore, more than 1 million people have opened help to buy ISAs since they were introduced in 2015. Those have helped people buy more than 100,000 homes, and they have been used particularly in areas such as the north-west and Yorkshire and the Humber.

Three quarters of British families and households have savings and pensions managed by the UK fund management industry, and pension providers are key to delivering a better future for us all. We have the second largest pension industry in the world, with total investments of nearly £3 trillion. At the end of last year, more than 9 million people in this country had been automatically enrolled into pensions thanks to this Government’s actions. Insurance services are vital to consumers, too. More than 20 million households have motor insurance, 19 million have contents insurance, and 16 million have buildings insurance.

People also use banks: 99% of British adults have at least one bank account. That is great. We know retail banking is going through a massive transformation. Consumers are moving from paper, cheques and cash to online and contactless payments and records. Government figures show that 56% of consumers used online banking last year. That is great, but it means that nearly half the population did not. The issue of bank branch closures is not just for rural areas. I represent the city of Chelmsford, and I have had many emails from constituents who are concerned about the last bank closing in the Great Baddow area. It is right that MPs raise the issue often in the House. Post offices can and will provide some of the services that people need, but there also needs to be clear and specific communication to those affected.

Financial services are also of huge benefit to the public sector. People in my constituency really want to see investment in infrastructure—that is a top priority— and dynamic financial services are key to getting the infrastructure we need. I should probably declare an interest: I had a long career in infrastructure finance before entering the House. The UK Government aim to invest more than £240 billion between now and 2021, of which it is estimated 45% will come from a diverse range of private investment sources.

Financial services are also key to supporting other businesses. They provide current accounts and insurance cover, and help companies to raise the money they need to invest, grow and create jobs. The total value of loans from major banks to British businesses is just over £460 billion. More than a third of that is lent to small and medium-sized businesses. Last year, British companies raised £27.2 billion by issuing shares, nearly £24 billion of which was raised on the London stock exchange. Companies also raise money from corporate bonds, asset finance, angel investment, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer funding and private placements. According to research by Cambridge University, in 2016 more than 33,000 small and medium-sized enterprises had already received funding—totalling more than £3 billion—from alternative finance providers. That market is growing rapidly.

The UK is a global leader in the FinTech sector. Investment in FinTech more than doubled last year. We are the second largest FinTech country in the world, just after the US. FinTech products have given access to services to many people who found themselves excluded from traditional financial services. FinTech products have increased transparency, dramatically reduced the cost of everyday transactions and helped to fight financial fraud and improve security.

Last month, the Chancellor launched the FinTech sector strategy, which I welcome, but many other parts of the financial services industry could benefit from such sector strategies too. The financial services sector comprises many different subsectors, each of which needs and deserves detailed and specific focus. It is important that we have that focus now, especially because of the Brexit negotiations. Financial services will be very much impacted by the type of Brexit we have.

I will give the example of the insurance sector, which, as I have said, is a major employer in my constituency. The UK is a global leader in insurance services. We are home to the largest insurance industry in Europe. Our commercial insurance market facilitates the flows of trade across all of Europe and acts as a massive bridge to the markets in North America and across the world, in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Many clients across the rest of the EU rely on the London market to provide certain insurance and reinsurance products that they simply cannot get in their own markets.

That is why, every year, European companies pay insurance premiums worth over €9 billion into the London market and why €7 billion of international business is written in the London market by organisations whose parent companies are elsewhere in Europe. Once the UK has left the EU, UK-based insurance and reinsurance undertakings will lose their right to conduct business in EU27 member states by way of freedom of establishment and freedom of services—and vice versa: European companies will lose their right here, unless there is a deal allowing that to continue.

A further technical but very concerning point is that, in December, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority issued an opinion saying that insurance contracts concluded before the withdrawal date by British companies into the EU27, and by EU27 companies into Britain, are in principle valid post-Brexit, but that those same firms would not be able to continue to ensure the continuity of their services to businesses and customers on a cross-border basis after we exit. That would include their not being able to service the claims of existing policyholders.

The continuity of servicing of cross-border contracts after Brexit is a real concern. According to the Bank of England, 36 million insurance policyholders—individual people—in Britain and the EU are potentially affected. That is only insurance policyholders; there is another £26 trillion of outstanding uncleared derivatives contracts. It is in the interests of both the UK and the EU to resolve the issue of contract continuity, both during the transition period and thereafter, and I am pleased to have heard the Chancellor mention that recently.

As well as resolving contracts, there is the issue of market access. The London Market Group, which represents the commercial insurance sector, points out that without continued access to insurance markets there will be disruption across a wide range of sectors, including aviation, marine, bank lending, satellite communications, shipbuilding and even nuclear power. Market access in the insurance sector is important to those other sectors that come to London to get insurance.

It is also important in sectors other than insurance. British-based asset managers manage more than £1.5 trillion of assets for EU clients. Two thirds of the debt and equity raised by European companies comes from British-based banks. Three quarters of European forex and interest rate trading takes place in the UK. Trade in services is not just a one-way street, and it is important to remind people on the other side of the channel of that. The UK imported £76 billion-worth of services from the EU in 2016, an increase of about 10% on previous years. Financial services also underpin the cross-border flow of goods. I have just bought a new car; like most new cars bought in Britain today, it comes with a financial services contract. The service is linked to the good.

When it comes to the financial services sector, the concept of no deal with Europe is not a good deal for Britain, and it is not a good deal for the rest of Europe either. There is no free trade agreement anywhere in the world that offers anything like the depth and breadth of what is needed by the EU and UK financial services players to help to keep the sector and to ensure it continues to underpin the wider economy. That is why it is right that the Prime Minister, in her Mansion House speech, called for a

“broader agreement than ever before.”

It is important that we focus on the details of what that relationship could look like. Companies in financial services have very long lead times to plan their businesses. Once contingency plans have been put in place, they are unlikely to be undone. The agreement on the transition period is welcome, but it is not legally enforceable until we also know what the withdrawal agreement looks like. Firms, especially in the EU, are still being asked by their regulators to continue planning for a no deal scenario, which risks the transition agreement being undermined in practice. In contrast, the Bank of England and the Prudential Regulation Authority have given helpful guidance to firms here that they can continue to operate under the current regulatory regime. One thing I ask the Minister to do is to work with our European counterparts to try to ensure that firms on the other side of the channel can be given similar messages to the one the Bank of England is giving.

On the long-term agreement, an organisation called the International Regulatory Strategy Group prepared an excellent report on “A New Basis for Access to EU/UK Financial Services Post-Brexit”, which I strongly recommend. It concluded that a deal should be sought that was based on mutual recognition and regulatory co-operation, delivering market access rights. That view has broad support from across many areas of the financial services community.

The UK Government have called for cross-border access in financial services based on regulatory and supervisory co-operation. It has been encouraging to see an acknowledgement of the importance of services in the EU’s own negotiating guidelines. It is important to recognise that, if we are to achieve that high level of market access, we also need a high level of regulatory dialogue, trust and co-operation. The lessons of the last financial crash remind us how important good regulation is, because if a failure happens it can become systemic. The crash also emphasised the need for international co-operation and made us realise that, when it comes to cross-border institutions, the regulatory framework needs to work across borders too.

However, it is important to remember that the industry has come a long way since 2008. Across the world, capital requirements on large banks are now 10 times higher than they were before the crisis. British banks have raised over £130 billion of loss-absorbing capital. The recovery and resolution regime, which I am proud to have played a part in negotiating, means that failed banks can be wound down without needing to rely on taxpayer bail-outs. Fundamental to that is the fact that senior executives can now be held individually accountable for the banks they run.

Under this Government’s leadership, the UK has worked with regulators all across the world to improve the stability of the financial sector. When it comes to the detail of the regulation, we have worked most deeply with our neighbours in the EU. We have created a common rule book in many subsectors of financial services, and industry players in the vast majority of those subsectors want to continue to use that rule book. It is important that we focus on how that co-operation continues and what sort of regulatory environment we want to have going forward.

There is huge devil in the detail of financial services regulation. We should not kid ourselves that global rule-making will replace the level of detail that EU-UK co-operation has given, and we should remember that our co-operation with Europe has helped us to have a stronger influence on the global stage.

The example of taxpayers’ money no longer being needed to bail out a failing cross-border bank was critical to building British stability in financial services after the financial crash. We agreed that that should happen at a global level, but it was actually getting the devil in the detail right between the UK and the rest of the EU that enabled us to get the detailed negotiating right and to then take the details back to the global stage.

In his excellent Canary Wharf speech, the Chancellor spoke of ongoing co-operation on a number of areas, including market abuse, transaction reporting, stability monitoring and the means to identify prudential concerns about individual firms. Achieving a successful Brexit negotiation is fundamental to ensuring that the UK’s global financial services sector remains competitive and is able to continue to deliver not just for the British economy but for clients across Europe, too.

I know I have already spoken for quite a long time, but I will use this opportunity to take a few more minutes to focus on areas where I think the Government or our regulators might take action. On supporting innovation, the FinTech sector deal is very welcome. Open banking provides huge opportunities, allowing customers to better compare deals and find the best products to suit their needs. It means that we will get new market entrants, and some of the services that they will offer will be taken up by people who have been or have felt excluded from traditional services.

The Government could do more to unlock the sharing of data in this space, especially by increasing transparency over capital requirements for new bank start-ups—sorry, I am a bit of a geek on bank capital requirements, after many years of negotiating—which would help to get more of those new businesses and ideas off the ground. The growth of green finance is potentially very exciting, and targeted measures could put us at the forefront of that exciting area of innovation.

I will look at a few issues on regulatory oversight. Our financial services sector has a strong reputation across the globe for high standards of regulation and transparency, which is vital in underpinning the trust that delivers the sector’s success. However, the industry has not always been perfect, and when issues arise it is important that they are dealt with fairly. Many small and medium-sized businesses were badly affected by the mis-selling of interest rate hedging products—especially by organisations such as the Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS—in the run-up to the financial crash and in how those products were managed thereafter.

One of my constituents told me how he was forced to hand over the keys to his business, which he had grown and delivered, and was then given no transparency on what happened to the businesses thereafter. These are complex cases, and many of those affected still do not believe that they have been given a fair hearing or fair compensation. There have been questions on whether the Financial Ombudsman Service has the capacity to cope, and I understand that a new independent investigation into it is being undertaken. It is important that we take this opportunity to move forward and restore that confidence, so I will be grateful if the Minister will keep a firm eye on how we deal with those legacy cases.

As Members of Parliament, it is important that we focus on consumer issues. The Government have rightly taken action to cap the charges associated with payday loans. However, a recent Which? study found that consumers needing to borrow as little as £100 could sometimes be charged up to £156 more for the loan by a major high street bank than a payday lender would have been allowed to charge when borrowing the same amount for the same period. There is a particular issue with how banks treat heavy overdraft users, who are often quite vulnerable. It appears that we may need to look at the way banks lend in this area. I understand that a consultation on that was meant to be launched in the spring but that it has been pushed back to next year. I ask the Minister to look at that issue.

Cyber-security is a big issue, and I am honoured to chair the all-party parliamentary group on cyber security. I strongly recommend Members look at it. Cyber-crime is now second only to political risk as one of the key challenges facing the financial sector, and the sector is taking action. Yesterday morning I was with TheCityUK to launch a major new report on how boards and companies can better protect themselves with cyber-security. Cyber-security is often linked to money laundering, and it is absolutely right that tackling that economic crime is a major priority for the Government and the industry.

Many Members on both sides of the House have mentioned money laundering issues in the past few weeks, especially since the terrible incident in Salisbury, which the Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury (John Glen), dealt with so thoughtfully. It is a significant and important issue, on which Britain needs to lead the world, so it has been good to see the Chancellor this week putting the fight against dirty money right at the top of the International Monetary Fund’s agenda for leaders across the world to focus on.

Regulators here have also asked the Government to look at some potential legal and regulatory barriers that currently limit effective counter-fraud procedures. It is easier to transfer money at speed across different bank accounts today than ever before. Many legitimate customers welcome that, but that speed of transfer is also exploited by criminals.

There needs to be a balance between openness and speed, and I would like to see the Government and regulators looking at ways to enable banks to share information across the industry and for us to discuss whether the approach to payment processing could be flexed to allow more time to scrutinise higher risk payments. I remember a constituent of mine coming into my constituency surgery traumatised because he had lost his life savings thinking he was genuinely buying the car of his dreams, only to find it had been a massive fraud. It was impossible for the bank to track down what had happened to that money afterwards.

If the law were changed, banks tell me that they would be able to share data more quickly and safely, so they could better detect and prevent those types of economic crime. Innocent people’s life savings are being stolen, and we should do what we can to stop it. I would love to see the Government and the regulators working to see if there is anything more we can do to make sure that we can target those incidents while also protecting personal data.

One of the great things about the Government’s industrial sector strategy deals is that they run across all areas of Government and identify areas where all Departments can help to deliver success. The financial services sector is no different from others in this area. On skills, the sector needs to know that there is a strong pipeline of talent of people who have the skills, education and training needed to keep the industry globally competitive—particularly focusing on areas such as FinTech and cyber.

Financial services is a people-driven business, but many of those people commute, so investment in infrastructure—physical as well as digital—is key. We need to connect those regional clusters, reduce journey times and bring a larger number of people within an easily commutable distance of jobs in those sectors. My goodness, how much we need to improve our commuter experience! My local railway station in Chelmsford is the busiest two-platform train station anywhere in the United Kingdom. We need investment in infrastructure to ensure that people can get to work in this sector. We also need to provide housing and to enable our country’s businesses and ideas to connect with markets across the globe.

As I said, financial services do not exist just in London. Just as it is for other industries, localism is important for this one. Local and devolved decision making can help. An industrial strategy must be suitable for the whole nation, but local differences need to be permitted. The most effective way to support this industry is to have a strategy that gives local areas the power to focus on their strengths.

The UK’s financial and professional services sector is a world-leading industry today and is well placed to continue to lead the world in the future. We cannot divorce this sector from our wider industrial strategy. Our dynamic financial services industry is key to every other part of our country’s industrial performance. It is the key pillar of our economy and deserves the full and focused attention of the Government and Members of the House.

--- Later in debate ---

[John Glen]

The hon. Gentleman has made a valiant attempt to try to draw out from me something over which, as he is probably very aware, I have little control. I do share with him an appreciation of the centrality of financial services in the City of London and we have a shared understanding that, if the EU does not come to a place of understanding about City of London financial services, it would leave Europe a lot less competitive.

To address that, the Chancellor set out what our future regulatory framework should look like, underpinned by three things: a binding dialogue for regulatory requirements, supervisory co-operation arrangements that are reciprocal and reliable, and an independent arbitration mechanism to provide durable dispute resolution. That is clear. It is complex, but necessarily so, given what we are dealing with.

Reaching such an agreement with the EU need not be a challenging objective because the status quo is an unbeatable precedent to work from. Our markets are already deeply interconnected; our rule books are identical; and our mutual commitment to world-leading standards is unbeatable. The EU itself has challenged the notion that financial services cannot be addressed in trade negotiations, as evidenced in its approach to creating a deep bilateral framework with the US in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. In those negotiations, the EU pitched a relationship based on mutual recognition of regulations and a unique dialogue on aligning future rule-making. TTIP is a precedent for the approach that we wish to take with the EU. It is in neither the UK’s nor the EU’s interest to exclude financial services from the future relationship.

The UK is clear that there are limitations to how much either of us can achieve unilaterally. The reality is that the European Council and European Parliament have now formally recognised the need to address the terms of market access in financial services between the UK and the EU, so we need to come to the table and discuss it further.

Myriad financial services on which businesses rely to reduce their costs are derived from or pass through, or are linked to, the UK market. Businesses also reap the benefits of the savings and capital flows to consumers across the continent. Those flows untap greater financial prospects for a broad range of people and allow them to access new products and services, such as innovative investment opportunities, tailored and appropriate debt products, and technology-driven solutions such as open banking.

My hon. Friend the Member for North East Derbyshire talked about shared services in the context of the challenges relating to bank closures. The only inhibitor to that is the banks themselves—there is no restriction on finding a shared venue. I know from my conversations with banks in my constituency that phenomenal changes are going on in the age profile of bank users. Just before the Easter recess, I took the opportunity to visit different banking environments and a mobile banking facility in Derbyshire. I was very impressed with what I saw. It happened to be a Lloyds mobile bank, and it came to the village twice a week at the same time. It had disabled facilities. Of course, we all want to retain that certainty about the bank network, but that is not possible because it is a commercial decision. I am in active dialogue with a range of banks, as we all are as constituency MPs, and I know that these are difficult decisions. I commend my hon. Friend’s suggestion, and I raise it actively when I meet representatives of banks.

[Vicky Ford]

On bank branch closures, I too commend the suggestion about bringing together many banks to operate out of the same premises, although that could be difficult to achieve. People have raised with me the issue of depositing cash. The people who run the church or school fête tend to have large quantities of small denominations of cash. Is there more we can do to ensure that the Post Office offers that service?

[John Glen]

UK Finance and the Post Office have come to a new understanding about how the Post Office’s services are made available if the last bank leaves a town or community. In 99% of cases, the services that an individual non-business customer would wish to use are accessible in post offices. There are some limits—this needs to be checked, but I am pretty sure it is £2,000 in cash—but alternative arrangements can be made if necessary. Although I accept that in some cases there is a cultural barrier to the widespread use of post offices, there is no functional reason why they cannot provide the vast majority—99%—of the services that most consumers and 95% of small businesses want. I urge my hon. Friend to look into those options and make that clear to her constituents.

--- Later in debate ---

[Vicky Ford]

I thank hon. Members for their contributions. Many times since joining this place, I have heard hon. Members take very angry and aggressive positions in opposition to each other. It is good, on this calm and quiet Thursday afternoon, to hear hon. Members speaking in support of the financial sector, and about their pride in it and in the way the people who work in it and in the related professional sector use those services and their careers to support customers and the wider economy.

I want to pick up a couple of small issues. The Minister stated clearly that Britain does not want a bonfire of regulation; our aim is to continue to be a benchmark of good regulation across the globe. I absolutely support that aim, and I think it is important that we continue to say that again and again.

The Minister also made the very clear point that, from the British point of view, we want to give certainty in the Brexit negotiations to businesses and consumers on this side of the channel that they will not face disruption. We want to ensure that their contracts continue to be recognised during the transition and beyond, and we need those on the other side of the channel to give the same level of certainty.

I am going to make terrible mistakes if I try to name everybody’s constituencies—

[Alison Thewliss]

Glasgow Central.

[Vicky Ford]

The hon. Member for Glasgow Central (Alison Thewliss) said she is extremely concerned about how soon we can give certainty in the EU negotiations. There are two sides to giving certainty. The Government’s statements—especially the detailed HSBC Canary Wharf speech—contain a huge amount of detail about the need for ongoing co-operation. The EU negotiators have also talked about wanting to have super-equivalence, and that is helpful, but we have not seen the same level of detail. It needs to come from both sides.

In my experience of many years of EU negotiations, having a seat at the table was sometimes helpful—that will be missed—but there were other times when it was a challenge. The financial services industry is much more important to our economy than it is to that of many other countries, although it does support them, but that left us with different exposures. That is why we did not want to have an identical approach to solve certain issues; the approach of maximum harmonisation—one size fits all—that we increasingly see across the single market is very challenging.

The hon. Member for Stalybridge and Hyde (Johnathan Reynolds) spoke about needing to confirm whether we are going to align. To me, that sometimes means having a completely identical approach, which can be a challenge. One thing I learned from my time in European politics is that there are times when the EU recognises equivalence, but without that being identical. I particularly look at the way in which we treated the bank sector. When we introduced our bank levy, the rest of Europe, particularly within the eurozone, had the funded deposit guarantee system. There were two different ways to solve the same issue to make sure that funds were set aside in case there was failure, but they are both built into the legislation.

[Jonathan Reynolds]

My point was not around the specifics of regulations; it is a question of economic models and the partnership we seek with the European Union. We have to try to move the negotiations forward. We have to give them an unequivocal sign of what our future intentions are, or we simply will not get the progress that we need. We are already way behind where we need to be. The point around equivalence is simply this: yes, that model will work, but it must have legal certainty. Without that certainty we will have the migration of business.

[Vicky Ford]

On legal certainty, I completely agree. It is only five or six stops on the Jubilee line to get to Canary Wharf, so I took the bother to go and listen to every single word that was said in that speech. I wish more Members from this House had bothered to go and listen to it and to speak to the industry players who were there afterwards, because it went into detail and addressed very important things—especially how one was going to co-operate with the colleges of supervisors that have been set up on a bank-by-bank basis. Speaking to the individuals who are responsible for the regulatory functions within their own institutions and getting that level of detail was welcome. It is not fair to criticise only the British side of the negotiations for not giving enough detail—the British side has given significant detail.

Maintaining ongoing co-operation, dialogue and exchange of information is key in building regulatory trust. Let us not forget that £45 billion of taxpayers’ money had to be spent bailing out RBS; we had to bail out branches of not just the British bank but the Dutch and Irish bank because there was no legal mechanism for a cross-border reorganisation of a bank in crisis. That has been resolved, and part of the way it has been resolved is by having that ongoing dialogue that brings together the British regulators with the Dutch and the Irish. The very clear message from the Chancellor that he wanted to continue to be part of that should be welcomed. It is not as simple as saying we need alignment to give legal certainty. From the contributions that I had from organisations prior to this debate, the calls are for more legal certainty to be given from the other side of the negotiation table.

I thank Members for the many suggestions on how to deal with the issue of branch closures. There are clearly different problems in different parts of the country. As I said, my part of the country is an urban area—a city—and because we are seeing a change towards digital banking, there is less demand for physical banking, so we need to manage that transition.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North East Derbyshire (Lee Rowley), who made fantastic points so eloquently about the future of financial services, reminding us that we need to look forward to what sorts of services we want come 2028 and beyond. The actions that we take are absolutely key. Unlocking some of the benefits of the digital age, but also making sure there is perhaps some friction in the system so that we can put protections in for consumers, is definitely one of the actions I want to continue focusing on after this debate. I think that will help to protect people from cyber-attacks on their bank accounts.

It is absolutely vital that we continue to champion these industries, to support the people who work in them and to work with other parts of the world. I completely welcome the comments that the Minister made about setting up the regulatory working group with the United States and other parts of the world, and I wish him great success. Let us pick up the specific issues that have been addressed by Members here to make sure that we make targeted interventions where we can to help the industry, the people who work in it and the very many of our constituents who are, at the end of the day, consumers of these services and rely on them. Thank you, Sir David, for this wonderful afternoon.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered the financial services and the impact on the UK economy.