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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
Cable quizzes Darling
December 19, 2008 4:26 PM
[Dec 18]: • Vincent Cable (Deputy Party Leader; Twickenham, Liberal Democrat): FOLLOWING the revelation only this week that taxpayer-supported and guaranteed banks lost hundreds of millions of pounds in a pyramid selling scheme, … …
. . I want to ask the Chancellor about curbing gambling activities. There is a certain amount of emotional appeal in the Conservative leader's proposal that bankers should be rounded up and put behind bars, but is not a more practical and immediately useful suggestion that the banks should be required to divest themselves of their high-risk investment banking operations and concentrate on mainstream lending to British households and firms currently being deprived of credit?
Alistair Darling (Chancellor of the Exchequer, HM Treasury; Edinburgh South West, Labour): I agree with the hon. Gentleman that there are serious questions to be asked in the United States about the particular matter to which he refers, and I think I am right in saying that the chairman of the American Securities and Exchange Commission has indicated that there needs to be a thorough investigation there. However, I also think it is important that all banks-the boards of all companies, in fact-should know and understand the risks to which they might become exposed. The evidence of the last year is that far too many banks were not fully aware of those risks or did not make sufficient provision against those risks turning bad. The hon. Gentleman is right that we need to learn the lessons of what has happened in the past, which is why I said I wanted to bring forward proposals in the spring to look at aspects of our regulatory system, but that must also be done across the world. The G20 group of leaders and finance Ministers discussed that at the meeting in Washington in November, and we will discuss it again when we reconvene in London in April.
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