1-3 of 3 results for subject:Finance
Librarians' tools
- Search time
- 0.182 seconds
- Solr query time
- 0.003 seconds
- Search query
- subject:Finance
- We searched for
- subject_t:Finance OR subject_ses:91257
Type
House
Session
Year
Department
Member
Primary member
More
Barnett, Lord (3)
Answering member
Legislative stage
Legislation
Subject
Publisher
I declare an interest as chairman of a small quoted company. Will my noble friend consider two ways in which the Government could provide positive help? First, while they cannot do a lot about private companies, will he consider the possibility that any grants from government sources would have to be repaid if there was evidence that small companies were being paid late? Secondly, in the case of HMRC and the deferral of tax payments, interest charges are so high that it is a positive incentive to pay early, so will my noble friend consider delaying interest charges for about six to 12 months?
I declare an interest as chairman of a small quoted company. Will my noble friend consider two ways in which the Government could provide positive help? First, while they cannot do a lot about private companies, will he consider the possibility that any grants from government sources would have to be repaid if there was evidence that small companies were being paid late? Secondly, in the case of HMRC and the deferral of tax payments, interest charges are so high that it is a positive incentive to pay early, so will my noble friend consider delaying interest charges for about six to 12 months?
Asked by
Lord Barnett
(Labour)
Oral questions - Supplementary
Status
Answered
Answered on
4 March 2010
My Lords, the interests of the broad body of taxpayers have to be taken into account, so we do not want to be indulgent about late payment, although I know that my noble friend is not asking for that. On the more general issue of helping business, we are concerned, as I said, that public bodies should take account of these difficult times particularly for small suppliers. The public sector is setting an example and we hope that large businesses, which often command these resources from small suppliers, share exactly the same attitude and follow the same perspective.
Subjects
Business; Billing; Finance; Government departments; Small businesses
Date
4 March 2010
Reference
717 c1550
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
House
House of Lords
I cannot say that I agree or disagree with that, but I thank the Minister anyway for not answering my Question. We had a quite serious debate on this matter yesterday, when we discussed Glass-Steagall and the fact that President Obama has decided to put into practice this proposal, which I know the Minister disagrees with, as do I. In the report were also matters relating to what I referred to yesterday as the Volcker rules, whereby the investment by banks in hedge funds and other toxic assets, which was the major problem causing much of the crisis, would not be allowed. Does he support those rules, as he appeared to do much of the report, other than Glass-Steagall? If he does not, will he kindly tell us why?
I cannot say that I agree or disagree with that, but I thank the Minister anyway for not answering my Question. We had a quite serious debate on this matter yesterday, when we discussed Glass-Steagall and the fact that President Obama has decided to put into practice this proposal, which I know the Minister disagrees with, as do I. In the report were also matters relating to what I referred to yesterday as the Volcker rules, whereby the investment by banks in hedge funds and other toxic assets, which was the major problem causing much of the crisis, would not be allowed. Does he support those rules, as he appeared to do much of the report, other than Glass-Steagall? If he does not, will he kindly tell us why?
Asked by
Lord Barnett
(Labour)
Oral questions - 1st Supplementary
Status
Answered
Answered on
24 February 2010
I am sorry that my noble friend felt that I did not answer his Question; I was seeking to be as holpen as possible. The Glass-Steagall Act was replaced by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. The Volcker rule, which comes out of the G30 report that Volcker produced in January 2009, does not go back to or recommend Glass-Steagall. What President Obama has done in picking up part of the G30 report is to talk about limiting the growth of banks’ liability base and addressing issues around proprietary training, private equity and hedge funds. Proprietary training, private equity and hedge funds were not part of the problem that brought the world’s banking system to its knees. The system was brought to its knees by a combination of the existence of an unregulated shadow banking sector, too much dependence on wholesale funding and, at its very core, bad lending decisions. We are taking action to address those issues through a panoply of responses, but I do not think that the Volcker rule addresses the core problem behind the weaknesses of the world banking system.
Subjects
Banks; Finance; Regulation; USA
Date
24 February 2010
Reference
717 c1007
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
House
House of Lords
My Lords is not the real reason for any loss of confidence the appalling judgment of the bankers—who are still there—on lending? There is no guarantee that they will not still be there on any changes that will be made later. May I clarify my noble friend’s policy on this? Unlike the President of the United States, is he saying that because those bankers are still going to be there, whether they are running small or large banks, the only way to get round the problem is by having some kind of compulsory insurance fund so that it cannot happen again and taxpayers and others are protected?
My Lords is not the real reason for any loss of confidence the appalling judgment of the bankers—who are still there—on lending? There is no guarantee that they will not still be there on any changes that will be made later. May I clarify my noble friend’s policy on this? Unlike the President of the United States, is he saying that because those bankers are still going to be there, whether they are running small or large banks, the only way to get round the problem is by having some kind of compulsory insurance fund so that it cannot happen again and taxpayers and others are protected?
Asked by
Lord Barnett
(Labour)
Oral questions - Supplementary
Status
Answered
Answered on
26 January 2010
The truth is that the senior management of Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS has changed almost entirely since the failures so there has been a complete re-engineering of leadership with new people brought in from other more successful organisations. It is axiomatic that a failed bank must see the shareholders suffer and the management must be removed. That is what we have done in the case of failed banks.
As for levies, as the House is no doubt aware, I chaired a meeting in Downing Street yesterday which looked at contingent capital and risk-based systemic levies in order to assist the world banking system become more resilient and to feed into the work of the IMF and the G20 when they meet later in the year.
Subjects
Banks; Finance
Date
26 January 2010
Reference
716 c1293
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
House
House of Lords