Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with (a) the Royal Bank of Scotland and (b) Ulster Bank on steps to assist with any potential future problems with their critical infrastructure.

The failure of IT infrastructure at Royal Bank of Scotland, or any other bank on which customers rely to manage their money, is completely unacceptable. Responsibility for infrastructure in the UK financial sector is primarily for the firms themselves. However, financial regulators have a role to play in supervising, coordinating and driving change to improve the operational resilience of the sector.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) jointly launched, in October 2014, a review of firms’ critical infrastructure and technology resilience. The review focuses on the most significant UK retail deposit-taking organisations, and is expected to conclude later this summer. The results will not be published, but the FCA and PRA will provide feedback to the firms individually on their findings and agree any follow-up actions.