Tag: Lord Myners

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-06-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord O’Neill of Gatley on 6 June (HL348 and HL349), whether the Bank of England will have regulatory responsibility for the subsidiary clearing house of Deutsche Börse incorporated in Germany; and, if it will not, which regulator would have responsibility in the event of a dispute between the clearing house based in the UK and the one based in Germany.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

As announced by the companies in February 2016, the existing regulatory framework of all regulated entities within the combined group would remain unchanged. This is subject to the regulatory review which will take place once the regulators are notified by the companies.

European Regulation No 648/2012 (EMIR) requires coordination amongst regulators for supervisory and authorisation matters with regards to CCPs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-03-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will review the possible consequences for financial stability of the consolidation of central clearing houses.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

European Regulation No 648/2012 (EMIR) establishes a strict supervisory framework for CCPs, which in the UK are regulated by the Bank of England.

EMIR’s requirements – which continue to apply in the event of a merger or change of control of a CCP – include that a CCP must be sufficiently well-resourced to withstand extreme market events, including the simultaneous default of its two largest clearing members.

In the event of a qualifying change of control the Bank of England must under EMIR also assess the suitability of the proposed acquirer and financial soundness of the proposed acquisition.

Copies of the Bank of England’s 2016 report on supervision of financial market infrastructures were laid before Parliament on 4 March and are available in the House library.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-04-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether there would be any disadvantages of the London Stock Exchange being headquartered outside the UK.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

I refer the noble Lord to my written answers of 26 April (HL7583, HL7584, HL7585, and HL7586)

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-04-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will review decisions taken by the Pensions Regulator in connection with the BHS pension schemes.

Baroness Altmann

In accordance with Parliament’s wishes, the Regulator has operational independence. Whilst performance against its key targets is regularly reviewed by the Department, this does not encompass its regulatory decision-making or the conduct of its investigations. It would be entirely inappropriate and improper for Ministers to comment on or intervene in these areas.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-05-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will investigate the case for sales of gift vouchers by retailers to be backed by cash collateral held in independent escrow.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Her Majesty’s Government has asked the Law Commission to consider the treatment of gift vouchers and pre-payments in the event of retailer insolvency. The Government will consider carefully any recommendations that may emerge on this question once the Law Commission’s report is published in the summer of 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-07-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have made an estimate of the cost of their monetary policy on the solvency of pension schemes, and whether they plan to use the profit made from quantitative easing to strengthen the financial position of the Pension Protection Fund.

Lord Freud

The UK’s monetary policy framework gives operational responsibility for monetary policy to the independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the Bank of England. Decisions on setting monetary policy are for the judgement of the Monetary Policy Committee.

The Government is sensitive to the fact that there will be those who gain and those who lose from any particular monetary policy decision. Such distributional effects typically balance out over the course of a policy cycle.

Over the last six years low interest rates have helped households and businesses through challenging economic times. Furthermore, as the Bank of England has explained in its article entitled "The distributional effects of asset purchases" published in its 2012 Q3 Quarterly Bulletin: "Without the Bank’s asset purchases, most people in the United Kingdom would have been worse off. Economic growth would have been lower. Unemployment would have been higher. Many more companies would have gone out of business. This would have had a significant detrimental impact on savers and pensioners along with every other group in our society."

The Pension Protection Fund is financially sustainable and there are no plans to further strengthen it. The PPF 2015/16 annual report said that the Fund has over £22 £23 billion assets under management and is 115 116.3 per cent funded.

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2015-02-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint was made aware of the information forwarded to them by the government of France on alleged tax evasion made possible by HSBC.

Lord Deighton

Due to the longstanding legal requirements for taxpayer confidentiality, Ministers are not made aware of invidual tax cases. At no point were Ministers made aware of any suggestion of wrong doing by HSBC itself.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2015-02-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what actions they plan to take in connection with bankers who colluded in tax evasion or oversaw those perpetrating collusion.

Lord Deighton

HL4893

Under the Swiss Agreement HMRC received a list of the top 10 destinations to where funds were moved in the period before the Agreement came into force. They are using this information together with information from compliance work to follow the proceeds of tax evasion.

As with Lichtenstein agreement signed in 2009, HMRC is legally restricted by the Agreement’s terms from publishing the information provided.

HL4896

Where there is evidence of collusion in tax evasion or other wrongdoing, the relevant law enforcement agency would assess that evidence and decide whether to pursue an investigation.

HMRC received the data from the French in April 2010 under very strict international treaty conditions, which limited its use to tax purposes only and prevented HMRC from sharing the data with other law enforcement authorities for investigating other potential offences.

HMRC first asked for the conditions to be relaxed in August 2010. Following a number of more recent representations, the French authorities gave written confirmation on 23 February 2015 that they were lifting restrictions on the use and sharing of the data with other law enforcement agencies and regulators for the purpose of investigating criminal offences.

As a result, HMRC has recently held a multi-agency meeting to discuss how the stolen HSBC Suisse data can be shared with them.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2015-02-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to ban United Kingdom banks from operating branches or subsidiaries in offshore tax havens; and whether United Kingdom regulators have any regulatory responsibility for those banks, their management or those in the United Kingdom who supervise such activities.

Lord Deighton

The Government does not impose restrictions on where UK banks can operate overseas. However, the UK has championed international tax transparency and through our G8 Presidency has driven the agreement and early implementation of the new global standard for automatic exchange of financial information for tax purposes. To date over 90 countries have committed to exchange such information on a multilateral basis. The UK also remains committed to ensuring that there are effective anti-avoidance rules in place to protect the UK corporation tax base.

This includes the introduction of new Controlled Foreign Company rules (effective from the beginning of 2013) which help to deter and prevent artificial diversion of profits from the UK.

It also includes supporting the G20-OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project which is looking to address weaknesses in international tax rules which allow companies to avoid paying tax on their profits.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) are the UK financial services regulators. The role of the FCA and PRA in regulating overseas branches and subsidiaries of UK banks is dependent on the specific circumstances of an individual case.

However, I have asked the FCA and the PRA to reply directly to the Noble Lord by letter to explain their role in this area. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2015-02-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to consider setting the inflation target over an extended period, rather than a single year, in order to allow some catch-up for an extended period of under-target outcomes.

Lord Deighton

The Bank of England Act 1998 requires the Treasury to specify the objectives of the Monetary Policy Committee, namely what price stability is taken to consist of and the Government’s economic policy objective at least once every 12 months.

At Budget 2013, the Government reviewed the UK’s flexible inflation targeting monetary policy framework in international and historical context.

Based on the assessment set out in the review, the Government believes that low and stable medium-term inflation is a necessary, though not sufficient, pre-requisite for economic prosperity. As a result, in the remit for the independent Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, the Government has retained a flexible inflation targeting framework and reaffirmed the 2 per cent Consumer Prices Index inflation target, which applies at all times. The Government updated the remit to clarify the trade-offs that are involved in setting monetary policy to meet a forward-looking inflation target.