Speeches by Glen.

“I am not sure that is still the mission.”

“Thank you. Mr Celic, could you tell us what your members are saying? This is a topic that again has been discussed for most of the last five years. Do you think progress is being made? Is there a risk that we are once again avoiding some difficult challenges? We have one bad conduct thing, and there is always a call fo…”

“In some of our conversations previously, some of your members were probably the most assertive about wanting a primary objective. In the end, the Government at the time settled for a secondary objective. Would you like to describe where your members are now in terms of what they think needs to happen to realise the obj…”

“So what do we need to do to stop that? Your commentary is not in dispute; I am sure your colleagues this morning would share it. I understand that in your report you put a number of recommendations about 10-year horizons, clarity and all the rest of it. That means resisting some of the calls to intervene and give compe…”

“Can we focus in on the growth and competitiveness objective? As I see it, the previous Government legislated to institutionalise, in our country, a secondary growth objective for the regulator. At the same time, there is a call for higher standards of consumer care. When I was the Minister in this area, I always felt t…”

“I think it would be worth going back to the original question, because this is the core issue you face as representatives of the industry.”

“In reality, a step change in the level of financial knowledge and awareness among the poorest in our society will not happen immediately. I am not saying that there are not things that can be done—I think we could all find a way of doing that. However, notwithstanding the point about not doing enough research, if peopl…”

“After year one.”

“Isn’t the reality that the poorest consumers have a lack of pathways? Mr McAteer suggests that that is because the banks and financial institutions are not using the opportunities of AI to create products and pathways, but consumers are losing growth in their cash, if they put it in equities. More than that, they are g…”

“That is a massive consumer detriment at the moment, isn’t it?”

“They do not trust themselves.”

“If the chair of the FCA says that there are 13 million consumers who have basically got £430 billion in cash, you have said there is nothing preventing the market from giving tailored advice. Given the economic advantage, presumably, to those companies of giving that advice, why is that not happening? They would do it …”

“Previously, we moved from a situation where you had commission for advice. There was more transparency, then the cost of it was too high and people could not afford it, and now nobody does it. If you want to have more than 7% of people taking advice, how is that paid for? It seems to me that if you go to the money advi…”

“After year one.”

“If Wiltshire embraces the opportunity to join Dorset and Somerset in an elected mayoral authority, will there be local elections all-out in Wiltshire next spring?”

“ Previous Ministers would have had a very similar conversation about similar priorities, but in a slightly different way and not formalised in this way.”

“ I am sorry, I do not want to labour the point, but I sat next to the Financial Secretary when the Financial Secretary was responsible for HMRC, and I saw you coming in a number of times, quite routinely, so I do not really understand. I have the greatest of respect, genuinely, for James Murray, but I do not under…”

“ I really do not understand what difference this makes. If you are operationally independent, and the Minister chairing the Board has no discretion over your day-to-day activities and cannot obtain any more information, what additional value does it bring the Government other than a superficial presentational one?”

“ I’d expect that you’ve got everything that you asked for.”

“ So you do not have any cross-referencing with the Rural Payments Agency and its interactions with the estate? One view could be that if an entity is registered with the Rural Payments Agency, it might constitute a farming enterprise, but you do not have any need for that information and you do not make any interr…”