Speeches by Glen.

“About 40 new banks have been created over the last 10 years, but the concentration of customer accounts still massively resides with five of them. You are examples of some of those new banks. One of the things that we want to get to grips with is regulatory burdens. You will have gone on a journey to get your banking l…”

“I could not resist it. I wanted to do something, but I could not for the reason that I have just described.”

“The question is, from a rational policymaking point of view, how do we achieve that outcome when, clearly, the argument is that we would be wasting money on people who do not need it—but then we do not get their behavioural change? What do you say to that?”

“On stamp duty, when I was a Minister, we looked at this principle of someone downsizing from, say, a house of £800,000 to one of £500,000, and the argument was that if you say that people do not pay stamp duty on the £500,000, obviously there is a lot of dead-weight cost, because of all that equity. What was happening …”

“Point taken.”

“If you are tracking the FTSE over 10 years on a tracker product, that does not really carry a big fraud risk, does it? What I am trying to get at is that there is a reasonable assertion around the mass use of trackers and low-risk equities, which is far better than the normal rate of return from interest over 10 years.”

“Can I come back on the issue of cash versus equity? I totally get that, with the age profile, when people are near retirement, it would generally be unwise to invest in equities. But this interacts with the challenge of financial education as well. For people below a certain age, it would be very unwise not to invest i…”

“As I understand it, the FCA has come back in the first half of this year on the wealth advice and guidance review, and you have spoken about the risks around the principles-based steer from the FCA and the rules-based ombudsman outcomes; there is an ambiguity between them. Can we get as specific as we can on what you n…”

“So your conservative lending practices can point to historically very safe positions, and you therefore need more freedom to hold less capital so that you can do more with it.”

“Mr Haire, from Skipton’s perspective, is there anything you would like to add? You do not have to repeat anything.”

“In certain parts of the country, it is a massive constraint.”

“I get that you have constructive conversations. I would have said the same when I was sat there, but is it getting to the outcome that you need on the scale that the Government want? What I hear when I talk to different banks is that some of the conversations about bespoke arrangements can go on for years before there …”

“On the leverage regime you are subject to—perhaps someone else wants to comment as well—the big banks have MREL, the challenger banks have Strong and Simple, and you are subject to a third regime. The impression we get sometimes, from talking to industry, is that the PRA can be very conservative in its approach to this…”

“That is incredibly helpful. I want to come back on one aspect of what you said. The stretch target, if you like, or the margin that was placed on top of the base rate for testing people’s mortgage affordability, has allowed us some comfort through difficult times—when interest rates went up a lot, we did not see many r…”

“I would like to ask about the trade-offs in your attitude to growth and regulation. Since the new Government came in just over 10 months ago, the whole narrative has been about what regulators can do to facilitate growth in the economy. Let us look at what the PRA and the FCA have told us. Sam Woods said that, since th…”

“Perhaps we will write to the Governor and ask him.”

“You will have to tell us if it does not work out well.”

“Mr Bhatia or Mr Mullen, do either of you have anything to add?”

“I would like to ask about the trade-offs in your attitude to growth and regulation. Since the new Government came in just over 10 months ago, the whole narrative has been about what regulators can do to facilitate growth in the economy. Let us look at what the PRA and the FCA have told us. Sam Woods said that, since th…”

“That is incredibly helpful. I want to come back on one aspect of what you said. The stretch target, if you like, or the margin that was placed on top of the base rate for testing people’s mortgage affordability, has allowed us some comfort through difficult times—when interest rates went up a lot, we did not see many r…”