Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of common bond geographic restrictions on the asset scaling capability of credit unions.

The Government is committed to supporting the growth of credit unions, recognising the important role they play in promoting financial inclusion, providing affordable credit and supporting regional economic growth.

To support this, the Government has committed to increasing the cap on the maximum potential size of credit unions with a locality based common bond from 3 million to 10 million people. This change will be delivered through secondary legislation, alongside further changes being made through the Financial Services and Markets Bill to modernise the common bond framework and support credit union growth.