Draft Capital Requirements (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 Draft Bank Recovery and Resolution and Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018

Debate between Jonathan Reynolds and Richard Bacon

Wednesday 12th December 2018 General Committees

[John Glen]

I acknowledge how it sounds, but this is a regulatory change to enable the discretionary power. The Government’s intent is to make prudential assessments in a non-politicised way.

[Mr Richard Bacon (South Norfolk) (Con)]

May I say how delighted I am that the Government are taking an approach that allows discretion? That was one enormous problem at the time of the financial crash, which was also a sovereign debt crisis. The hon. Member for Stalybridge and Hyde forgot to mention who was in charge at the time. That crisis was exemplified perhaps most clearly by Gordon Brown standing outside the shiny new Lehman Brothers office when it opened, shortly before the crash. The capital regime was so inadequate at the time under that regime—

[Jonathan Reynolds]

In America?

[Mr Bacon]

In London. The point I was going to make, and why I am so glad that the Minister is introducing provisions for discretion, is that part of the problem of the sovereign debt crisis was that—