Speeches by Baldwin.

“Mr Glen touched on this a bit earlier, but I want to drill down further into the comments you made about your mortgage book and mortgage losses. Clearly, after the invasion of Ukraine and the spike in inflation, there was a period where the Bank raised rates very quickly. Have you been surprised by how people have cope…”

“If you were Governor for the day, would you change it?”

“Can I just pick up on Mr Mullen’s point? There are voices in this Parliament that argue that banks should not be paid Bank rate on their reserves; they should be paid substantially less than that, and the money should be spent on public services. What is your view on that proposal, Mr Mullen?”

“Do you agree, Mr Bhatia?”

“On this subject, do you think our regulators know enough to ensure that the best is achieved through this technology? Or are they going to find ways to suppress innovation in this area?”

“I have one last question on this very interesting subject of AI. In the UK financial services sector, who is using it in the most effective way and will come out as the dominant financial institution because of its use? Is there anyone that you would pick out as being really interesting?”

“To clarify, are you one of the 10 players?”

“We appreciate how important the sector is for achieving the goal of increased home ownership that successive Governments have shared. Mr Mullen, what are you expecting or hoping the FCA will come forward with in terms of your business at Atom Bank? I understand that you are in the mortgage sector.”

“Mr Bhatia, I know that your bank does not offer mortgages. Have you looked at doing it and decided not to, or have you not looked at it?”

“Yes, that message in the mortgage charter about getting in touch with your mortgage lender is confirmed as an important one. In our LISA inquiry, we heard from the Minister in our evidence session that home ownership is a major public policy objective. I wanted to ask each of you to pick two things that you would do di…”

“Mr Glen touched on this a bit earlier, but I want to drill down further into the comments you made about your mortgage book and mortgage losses. Clearly, after the invasion of Ukraine and the spike in inflation, there was a period where the Bank raised rates very quickly. Have you been surprised by how people have cope…”

“Moving on to where we are today with IT, with artificial intelligence. Mr Thwaite, you have publicly highlighted the potential for artificial intelligence to help your workforce be more efficient. Does that mean you think it will reduce the size of your workforce over time?”

“Specifically on the colleagues, are you expecting headcount reductions over time?”

“Mr Nunn, you just mentioned artificial intelligence in the context of the advice guidance boundary. It sounds as though you are exploring the use of AI as a way of helping to give extra advice to customers. Is that correct?”

“A very quick yes/no: Lloyds of London now offers insurance to cover malfunctioning artificial intelligence tools. Have any of you taken it out? All witnesses indicated dissent.”

“It happened again a month later, didn’t it? What did go wrong?”

“Is it the old legacy systems that worry you the most, or the newer software and threats like the quantum apocalypse and so on?”

“What was the root cause, if it was not a cyber-attack?”

“Mr Stuart, you must lie awake at night and think, “There but for the grace of God goes my firm.” What worries you most about your IT vulnerabilities?”

“I would like to start with Mr Maru, if I may. It is month end, it is payday and your systems go down twice in a row. How worried should our constituents be about the legacy systems that your bank and other banks represented on this panel have? Should they all hold cash under the mattress, use cryptocurrencies or have o…”