Speeches by Coghlan.

“It would be great to share that analysis. That is really good to hear in terms of the impact of our sanctions. The former Treasury Committee heard evidence that the US is apparently doing a better job in going after the enablers of sanctions, such as lawyers and accountants, than the UK. Would you agree with that asses…”

“Just on the private sector point, as someone who left the private sector for public service, appealing to their vocational instincts helps, in my experience. I am interested in the unintended consequences of sanctions. In the years after the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008—to disclose, I was working in investment m…”

“Are you seeing that?”

“More specifically, have you looked at the cost to legitimate businesses from Russian sanctions? How do you ensure that small UK businesses that do not have compliance departments are complying with sanctions or that they do not find the burden too onerous?”

“Bill Browder, the head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign, suggested, again to the former Committee, that sanctions should require enablers—accountants, lawyers and trustees who work for sanctioned individuals—to come forward in line with existing anti-money laundering legislation. Is that a realistic proposal? I…”

“Sorry, do you mean an accountant?”

“On the fines and penalties point, have you looked at comparators—the US, for example, or EU countries—in terms of the level of fines they are doing versus what you are doing? Are you broadly in line, or is that even a valid comparison?”

“Once an individual is sanctioned, a lawyer or accountant can only provide professional services to them if they have a licence. I have got you; that makes sense. Similarly, we have heard that, according to Transparency International, limited partnerships are the tool of choice for Russian money launderers. There are al…”

“Ms Lombardelli, many are advocating seizing the $300 billion in frozen Russian FX reserves. Has the Bank done any analysis that you can share with us on the potential impact of that on global capital markets and the risk premium to G7 debt, and therefore what the potential economic benefit or cost could be to G7 econom…”

“Thank you, Professor Taylor, for your comments. Building on that, of course a trade war is in nobody’s interest, but during the first Trump Administration Vietnam and Germany were major beneficiaries from displaced trade due to the US-China trade war. Is it possible that there is a similar opportunity for the UK in the…”

“Governor, in your Mansion House speech, you spoke about the vital importance of improving UK productivity. You said that that is linked to capital deepening, that the UK has continually been at the bottom of the G7 league table for investment since the 1990s and that public investment is the foundation of business inve…”

“Presumably that is much less than if more of the Budget was aimed at public investment versus two thirds of it being on current spending.”

“As we have been discussing, the Budget is forecast to be inflationary. Given that, to what extent does it make sense for the Bank to be increasing interest rates to respond to that Government-induced inflation? If that does control inflation, is there a risk that that will then hamper growth and productivity, given the…”

“Governor, building on your comments on Brexit, which you also spoke about in your Mansion House speech, are you able to tell me what the Bank’s best estimate is of the impact of Brexit on UK inflation in the short term, and on investment and productivity in the long term?”

“On the quality of the public investment, many economists, such as Paolo Surico of London Business School, think that mission-oriented, very specific and targeted R&D is the most effective way to use public investment to crowd in private investment and help address productivity. I was really pleased to see that in the B…”

“Very quickly, Mr Macfarlane—I should know this off the top of my head—how does that 2.5% compare with other countries with better productivity performance? What would be a healthy level—an optimal level—of public sector investment, versus, say, Germany and France?”

“I fully agree with you that cutting it would be damaging, but you are keeping it flat. Surely this is a missed opportunity to increase it, given that you cannot do that again.”

“Thank you, Chancellor, for coming in; congratulations on your appointment. I very much welcome the Government’s focus on growth, but gilt yields rose 10 basis points on Friday. That is highly unusual, outside of the mini-Budget, and indicates to me that your ability to do a similar-sized fiscal event in the future is r…”

“Just to follow up on that, there are choices on where the Government can spend this huge fiscal loosening that has happened. They have chosen to spend two thirds of it on current spending. Gilt yields have gone up by 10 basis points. That would indicate to me that we are kind of close to where we can max out the credit…”

“That is not really driving it.”