Speeches by Glen.

“Can I move you on to Basel III implementation and the consistency point? Often, representatives of banks used to say to me, “We are concerned that the ECB or the US are going to take a different line or come up with a different interpretation”. In, I think, answer 7 in your written evidence, you talk about the importan…”

“In reality, Parliament does not really decide. We do our best, but we are not somebody with all your experience. What I am trying to get at is that your commitment to those global standards, which I respect and I am sure the Committee broadly would agree with, has to sit alongside the opportunity, within the optimisati…”

“That is what I used to say to them as a Minister, because you cannot do much from just instinct.”

“Excellent—thank you.”

“Thank you for the opportunity to present this application. I represent the constituency of Salisbury, which has a large number of churches and a cathedral. I have taken an interest in various matters in this space since my return to the Back Benches, and it has occurred to me in conversations with colleagues across the…”

“Can I go back to this issue of the secondary objectives of the PRA and how you view them? You have competition on the one hand and international competitiveness and growth on the other. Could you start by explaining, so that members of the public who are watching can understand, how you view the trade-offs and the way …”

“Can I turn your attention to growth versus regulation? It is the area where there is a lot of focus at the moment. The financial services sector is a massive part of our GDP in the UK. We have the legacy going back to the previous crisis. The view could be that we put in place some pretty strong guardrails following th…”

“I recognise that that is likely to be the view of all regulators, because they are unlikely to say, “We have got it wrong over the last five or 10 years and have been holding competitiveness back”. You have given us a constructive perspective on what could change. Could I probe that a bit further? Could you try to char…”

“My colleague Dame Harriett Baldwin and I were Economic Secretaries to the Treasury and these conversations are probably more familiar to us. You were on TheCityUK council as well and we have had those conversations previously, but how quickly can we bring in some of these things? One thing that I am wary of is that, wh…”

“Is that not what is required to free you up? There is this interplay of well-meaning but contradictory dynamics between Parliament and the regulator, which means we are asking you to do two things at the same time. We are asking you to enable growth while taking account of a vast range of additional things.”

“Could I turn to the relationship between the non-bank sector and the risks to PRA-regulated firms? In your last answer you focused on this. It leaves quite a few things hanging in terms of how this might play out and therefore what the PRC might do proactively to get to a better place on this. Could you say something a…”

“For the benefit of those watching, what does that look like? Could you give some examples?”

“We are talking about direct lending, mezzanine funds, private debt funds, crowdfunding, hedge funds and peer-to-peer lending.”

“But all of the others?”

“In your answer you say, “As liquidity is withdrawn the quality of this lending, and privately issued currencies, will be revealed”. That sounds like, “Well, we will see what will happen”. Those reading or hearing that will think, “What more should the PRA be proactively looking at to avoid the eventuality that that is …”

“The Government have made their decision on that. There is an ongoing issue. I know of some places that have works under way and were planning to retrieve some VAT but might not be able to now, and there has been publicity about that. That might come up in the debate, but my purpose is not to focus on that but to focus …”

“We will drill into two specific examples. The Solvency II changes were consequential of the opportunities that came post Brexit. There was a really deep, fundamental dispute between the PRA judgment on what could change with the matching adjustment and what the insurance industry would say was totally acceptable in a w…”

“Your judgments are instrumental in framing the operating environment for these companies to be successful.”

“I welcome the Minister’s progress in this area. I visited IBCA on 30 January and was impressed by the professionalism of the team. Since then the Minister has made himself accessible so that I can give him feedback. One issue that has come up is the need for recipients of payments to sign non-disclosure agreements or t…”

“During their eight months in government, what assessment have the ministerial team made of the productivity of the civil service? What measures are they putting in place to improve it, and will the Minister report back to the House?”