Tag: Lord Myners

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-03-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether central clearing houses in financial markets are required to prepare living wills; and what measures have been put in place to manage a capital failure.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

UK legislation requires central counterparties (CCPs) to develop recovery plans and to have ‘loss allocation’ rules, in order to allocate any losses sustained by the CCP either following the default of a clearing member or due to certain non-default events, so that the CCP can continue to provide its critical functions.

The Government has also broadened the scope of the UK’s Special Resolution Regime to cover CCPs. When certain conditions are met, this allows the Bank of England to intervene by transferring all or some of the business of a CCP to either a private sector purchaser or to a bridge CCP owned by the Bank of England, or to transfer ownership of the CCP to any person.

Qualifying changes of control of CCPs are assessed by the Bank of England and I refer the noble Lord to my written answer HL7153 of 1 April 2016.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-04-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government to what extent their fiscal strategy is influenced by Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) was established to introduce independence, greater transparency and credibility to the economic and fiscal forecasts on which the government’s fiscal policy is based. Since 2010, the government has used the OBR’s economic and fiscal forecasts as the official forecasts. The government sets its fiscal strategy independently of the OBR but the forecasts are used to inform decisions on fiscal policy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-04-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which regulator will be responsible for overseeing the correlation algorithms used in cross margining positions held with LCH Clearnet and Euronext.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

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

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they, the Pensions Regulator, or the Pension Protection Fund have in the last three years had discussions with BHS, Lady Green or Sir Philip Green concerning the deficit in the BHS pension fund and a scheme to reduce that deficit.

Baroness Altmann

The Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund are independent bodies and in carrying out their functions they may meet individuals involved with pension schemes.

Ministers have engaged with a range of sponsoring employers of Defined Benefit pensions schemes as a matter of routine, including Sir Philip Green, as part of their normal considerations of the pensions landscape but oversight of the scheme funding regime for Defined Benefit schemes is a matter for the Pensions Regulator. It would not be appropriate for Ministers to intervene in individual cases or to discuss with the Regulator, the Pension Protection Fund or the scheme sponsor how a particular scheme’s pension deficit should be mitigated.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-06-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to publish the savings in public sector procurement as a result of following the advice of Sir Philip Green; and whether they will consider inviting Sir Philip to review the adequacy and effectiveness of implementation.

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

I refer the noble Lord to the answers I gave him on 11 April 2016 to Question HL7227 and on 9 May to Question HL7900.

We have published details of savings made through efficiency and reform each year since 2010-11. The most recent report can be found on www.gov.uk.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-10-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they (1) have confidence in the economic forecasting capability of HM Treasury, (2) have evaluated the performance of HM Treasury forecasters, and (3) have considered the case for outsourcing some or all of HM Treasury’s forecasting functions to another organisation.

Lord Young of Cookham

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is responsible for producing forecasts for the UK economy and public finances. It publishes regular Forecast Evaluation Reports (FERs) in which it compares its forecasts to subsequent outturns and explains any forecast errors.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2015-02-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they still consider it appropriate to allow Chinese banks to open branches in the United Kingdom.

Lord Deighton

The decision-making on applications from Chinese banks to establish branches in the United Kingdom is a matter for the independent Prudential Regulation Authority, consistent with its broader policy on the regulation of non-European Economic Area banks.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which were the 10 jurisdictions into which closed bank accounts held in Switzerland by United Kingdom residents were transferred according to information provided to them by the Swiss National Bank.

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 what regulatory actions were taken in the United Kingdom in connection with HSBC as a consequence of the fines imposed in the United States in response to its involvement in money laundering on behalf of Mexican drug cartels.

Lord Deighton

I can confirm to the Noble Lord that the information I provided him in response to his written question answered on 17th June 2013 remains accurate:

US investigations and enforcement action on HSBC focused on their subsidiaries in the US. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has no direct supervisory remit over these HSBC entities.

However, in conjunction with the action taken by the US, the (then) FSA, as lead regulator for the HSBC Group globally, made a number of requirements of HSBC Holdings plc, designed to ensure that all parts of the HSBC Group are compliant with the relevant legal and regulatory requirements across the Group to prevent similar failings occurring in future.

This included requiring a committee of the HSBC Board to oversee matters relating to anti-money laundering, sanctions, terrorist financing and proliferation financing; requiring the Group to revise its policies and procedures to ensure that all parts of the HSBC Group are subject to standards equivalent to those required under UK requirements; HSBC employing an independent monitor to oversee the Group’s compliance with UK anti-money laundering, sanctions, terrorist financing and proliferation financing requirements and to provide independent reporting to the HSBC Board committee and regulators. HSBC Holdings was also required to appoint a Group Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO), with responsibility for ensuring that systems and controls are in place across the Group.

The FCA is closely monitoring the implementation of these requirements by HSBC.

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.