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1177904

registered interest
date	11/02/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Mortgages
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of ring-fencing on the pricing of risk in the UK residential mortgage market.
tabling member printed	Lord Myners
uin	HL1527
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/02/2020 answer text <p>The Bank of England acknowledged, in its December 2019 Financial Stability Report, that there has been increased competition in the UK residential mortgage market, as reflected by the continued decline in interest rates for new mortgages. This report noted that the competition in the mortgage market may have been amplified by the introduction of ring-fencing regulation.</p><p> </p><p>This year the Treasury will be appointing an independent panel to conduct a review of the operation of ring-fencing, as required by legislation. Based on the conclusions reached in its report, the review panel will make any necessary recommendations to the Treasury. This final report will then be published by the Treasury.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 25/02/2020 14:30:31 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
tabling member	3869 label Biography information for Lord Myners

1177905

registered interest
date	11/02/2020
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	British Business Bank
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Duncan of Springbank on 28 January (HL579), whether the confidentiality agreements cover the aggregation of data for a number of unidentified peer-to-peer platforms; whether the same wording is included in all agreements with peer-to-peer platforms; and whether this wording is proposed by the Government or the peer-to-peer lender.
tabling member printed	Lord Myners
uin	HL1528
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2020 answer text <p>Confidentiality agreements between the British Business Bank and peer-to-peer lenders do not deal with aggregated data relating to multiple different platforms. The British Business Bank does not aggregate peer-to-peer data from different platforms for reporting purposes. Given the very small number of peer-to-peer platforms we invest in, we could not publish aggregate default rates without compromising confidentiality in relation to individual platforms. In keeping with our commercial approach, we do however continually monitor the market and carry out extensive due diligence on any peer-to-peer lender before entering any commercial agreement with them. Once an arrangement is in place, we receive regular data on the performance of our loan book to ensure that this is in line with the contractual expectations we have made with them.</p><p> </p><p>Different confidentiality agreements between the Bank and peer-to-peer delivery partners do not contain the same wording. The wording of each individual agreement is agreed jointly by the British Business Bank and the individual peer-to-peer lender, but they reflect delivery partner expectations, as is standard in the market.</p> answering member printed Lord Callanan question first answered 24/02/2020 15:01:48 answering member 4336 label Biography information for Lord Callanan
tabling member	3869 label Biography information for Lord Myners

1176208

registered interest
date	04/02/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Money Service Businesses
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) how many inspection visits HMRC made to money service businesses registered with them in each of the calendar quarters from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2019; and (2) how many of any such visits per quarter led to (a) de-registration, (b) disciplinary action or (c) closure of the business.
tabling member printed	Lord Myners
uin	HL1328
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/02/2020 answer text <p>HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) takes appropriate and effective enforcement actions against Money Service Businesses (MSBs) who fail to comply with the money laundering regulations. However, we consider that releasing the specific number of investigations and visits made to businesses in different sectors could enable opportunists to identify where resource is being focused, allowing criminals to arrange their activities accordingly to escape challenge. HMRC are therefore not able to release sector specific numbers on how many inspection visits are conducted against MSBs. The National Risk Assessment 2017 assessed MSBs as high risk for money laundering and terrorism financing and HMRC takes a risk-based approach to prioritise resources.</p><p> </p><p>Across all sectors, HMRC closed around 1,300 onsite cases in each of the financial years 2017/18 and 2018/19. Many of these cases involved multiple visits to businesses and onsite inspection visits are just one of the ways that HMRC monitors supervised businesses. We cannot provide information on the outcomes of inspection visits alone although in the 2019/2020 financial year, HMRC has seen the value of penalties across all sectors triple when compared with the value of penalties issued for the financial year 2017/18.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 19/02/2020 10:56:58 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
tabling member	3869 label Biography information for Lord Myners

1176209

registered interest
date	04/02/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Money Service Businesses
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government when they last assessed the risk that money service businesses were involved in the finance of crime and terrorism; what conclusions they reached as a result of any such assessment; and what action they took, if any, to tighten inspection and supervision of such businesses.
tabling member printed	Lord Myners
uin	HL1329
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/02/2020 answer text <p>Law enforcement agencies and the statutory anti-money laundering (AML) supervisors monitor the money laundering and terrorism financing risk associated with money service businesses on an ongoing basis. The Government published a National Risk Assessment (NRA) of the risk of money laundering and terrorism financing in October 2017. The NRA 2017 concluded that there was a high risk associated with money service businesses.</p><p> </p><p>The Government recognises the importance of developing and maintaining a robust and shared national understanding of money laundering and terrorist financing risks. The 2020 NRA, which will be published by July 2020, will provide an update on how these risks have changed since the 2017 NRA.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC recognises the risk posed by money service businesses and continues to devote a significant proportion of resources to their supervision. The NECC and HMRC are committed to working with public and private sector stakeholders to further reduce the extent to which money service businesses are used to facilitate serious and organised crime. Aided by a recent increase in supervision fees, HMRC committed as part of the Economic Crime Plan to ensure a robust approach to deliver an enhanced risk-based approach to its AML/CTF supervision by March 2021.</p><p> </p><p>In September 2019, HMRC announced a record fine of £7.8million against a London-based money service business for breaching the Money Laundering Regulations. This fine followed a joint month-long crack down on high risk money service businesses lead by HMRC, the Metropolitan Police and the Financial Conduct Authority.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 19/02/2020 11:01:34 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
tabling member	3869 label Biography information for Lord Myners

1176210

registered interest
date	04/02/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Money Service Businesses
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government on how many occasions in the last three years HMRC and the Financial Conduct Authority met to discuss co-ordination of their regulatory supervision of money service businesses; and how many occasions during that period those bodies conducted joint inspections of registered businesses.
tabling member printed	Lord Myners
uin	HL1330
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/02/2020 answer text <p>Since October 2019, HMRC have formally met with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) at least every month to discuss coordination of their regulatory supervision. Prior to that, meetings took place approximately every six weeks and were used to discuss specific cases and other issues. HMRC and the FCA also have frequent informal contact every few days.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC and the FCA do not operate a dual supervision model. Where a business is authorised by the FCA for Money Transmission only, HMRC are the supervisory authority. Conversely, when a business is supervised for any other activity by the FCA, the FCA are the supervisory authority.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC and the FCA share information and intelligence to assist each other with the supervision and regulation of registered and supervised businesses and work collaboratively to promote supervised businesses’ understanding of the risks they face, their statutory obligations and the implications of inadequately managing those risks.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 19/02/2020 10:59:54 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
tabling member	3869 label Biography information for Lord Myners

1176211

registered interest
date	04/02/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Money Service Businesses
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government who is responsible for the regulatory interface between HMRC and the Financial Conduct Authority in respect of money service businesses; and what measures are in place to ensure that individual businesses do not fall between the supervision of either body.
tabling member printed	Lord Myners
uin	HL1331
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/02/2020 answer text <p>The Treasury is responsible for appointing Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing supervisors under the Money Laundering Regulations and works closely with them to ensure they deliver the government’s objective of a robust risk-based approach to supervision.</p><p> </p><p>Whilst supervision of the sector is shared between HMRC and FCA, responsibilities on an individual firm basis are clearly allocated to each supervisor and both HMRC and FCA hold registers of entities subject to their supervision. The FCA is the supervisory authority for credit and financial institutions, including money service businesses (MSBs), when they are authorised persons under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. HMRC is the designated supervisor for non-financial institution MSBs that are not otherwise supervised by the FCA.</p><p> </p><p>Each supervisor is responsible for reviewing the AML compliance of MSBs under their supervision using a risk-based approach. The registration process for an MSB involves scrutiny of all beneficial owners, officers and managers to determine whether they are fit and proper to hold these positions. Both supervisors have established procedures for working collaboratively on policing the gateway and on the AML supervision of the MSB sector. This is underpinned by a joint FCA/HMRC Memorandum of Understanding and established legal gateways for sharing information and expertise.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 19/02/2020 10:59:06 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
tabling member	3869 label Biography information for Lord Myners

1176212

registered interest
date	04/02/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Financial Services
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) whether they, or the Financial Conduct Authority, are monitoring the use by fund managers of forward equity subscription commitments to leverage the gearing of open-end fund portfolios, and what assessment they have made as to whether such fund managers are correctly reporting the existence of such commitments to potential and actual investors in relevant funds; and (2) whether they have reviewed the arrangements made and signed by Woodford Investments as a principal or agent for funds.
tabling member printed	Lord Myners
uin	HL1332
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/02/2020 answer text <p>This is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is operationally independent from Government. The question has been passed on to the FCA. The FCA will reply directly to the noble Lord by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 19/02/2020 10:57:32 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
tabling member	3869 label Biography information for Lord Myners

1175335

registered interest
date	27/01/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Financial Services
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the effectiveness of authorised corporate directors of open-ended investment funds in providing investor protection.
tabling member printed	Lord Myners
uin	HL803
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/02/2020 answer text <p>The government is committed to ensuring that the UK has a robust framework for financial regulation and that consumers are treated fairly. The FCA is responsible for overseeing the conduct standards of financial services firms. <br> <br> ‘Host’ Authorised Corporate Directors (ACDs) are Authorised Fund Managers which are not within the group structure of the delegate investment manager. The FCA is currently reviewing how effectively ‘host’ ACDs undertake their responsibilities. The FCA expects to complete this work in the first half of 2020.</p><p> </p> answering member printed The Earl of Courtown question first answered 10/02/2020 15:40:57 answering member 3359 label Biography information for The Earl of Courtown
tabling member	3869 label Biography information for Lord Myners

1175265

registered interest
date	22/01/2020
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Small Businesses: Loans
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to address the regional disparities in small business lending, as reported in The Times on 21 January.
tabling member printed	Lord Myners
uin	HL710
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/02/2020 answer text <p>The Government is committed to levelling up across the whole country so that businesses can access the funding they need to thrive wherever they are.</p><p> </p><p>The British Business Bank (BBB) is a government-owned economic development bank which helps to drive economic growth by making finance markets work better for small businesses, enabling them to prosper and grow. Since BBB was established in 2014, it has supported over £7 billion of finance to over 91,000 SMEs across the UK (as at June 2019) and continues to grow. The stock of finance supported by the bank grew by 31% year on year (from June 2018 to June 2019).</p><p> </p><p>BBB’s Start Up Loans programme has so far provided 69,201 loans worth over £558m to small businesses (at end-December 2019) and has delivered loans in every parliamentary constituency in the UK.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>BBB has introduced specific funds and activities to help address regional disparities in access to finance, which are having an increasingly significant impact. These have equity and debt finance components, with the balance of debt to equity set according to the specific needs of the businesses in those regions.</p><p> </p><p>The funds include:</p><ul><li>The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF) which has invested over £140m of an overall £400m fund in over 500 ambitious SMEs across the Northern Powerhouse region, in deals that have attracted an additional £140m of investment from the private sector (as of Nov 2019). £80.6m of NPIF so far has been made in debt finance to 474 businesses;</li><li>The Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) which has invested over £48 million of an overall £250m fund in over 200 businesses, in deals that have attracted an additional £27m of investment from the private sector (as of Nov 2019). £23.9m of MEIF so far has been in debt finance to 177 businesses.</li></ul><p> </p><p>For equity investment, the BBB also has a £100m Regional Angels Programme, which is designed to help reduce regional imbalances in access to early stage equity finance for smaller businesses across the UK (launched in October 2018 by British Business Investments, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank). In September 2019, the first £10m commitment through the programme was made to one of the largest business angel networks in the North of England which primarily operates in the North West, Yorkshire and the North East with more commitments to be announced in the coming year.</p><p> </p><p>The UK Network, established in early 2019 by the British Business Bank is a UK-wide network of relationship managers which will continue to enhance and further build BBB’s relationships with key SME access to finance stakeholders across the UK and thereby help tackle regional imbalances in access to finance, including for smaller businesses seeking debt finance at all stages of their development.</p> answering member printed Lord Duncan of Springbank question first answered 03/02/2020 17:13:10 answering member 4686 label Biography information for Lord Duncan of Springbank
tabling member	3869 label Biography information for Lord Myners

1171817

registered interest
date	20/01/2020
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Duncan of Springbank on 28 October 2019 (HL48), whether the decision to classify the default rate of loans made by the British Business Bank via peer-to-peer platforms as commercially sensitive information was to protect (1) the British Business Bank, or (2) the identify of borrowers; and if it was to protect the identity of borrowers, whether they will publish the aggregate value of (a) defaulted, and (b) provisional, loans through peer-to-peer platforms for each of the last three financial years.
tabling member printed	Lord Myners
uin	HL579
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2020 answer text <p>Data provided to the British Business Bank (BBB) by its delivery partners to meet portfolio monitoring and reporting requirements remains commercially sensitive to the delivery partners and as such is governed by confidentiality agreements. An individual delivery partner may choose to publish data on the overall performance of their loan book, which may include but will not be limited to BBB backed investments. A list of BBB’s delivery partners can be found on their website.</p><p> </p><p>The BBB’s Annual Report and Accounts (“Enabling Small Businesses to Grow and Prosper”) includes information on the BBB’s overall performance and is available on the website</p> answering member printed Lord Duncan of Springbank question first answered 28/01/2020 15:47:32 answering member 4686 label Biography information for Lord Duncan of Springbank
tabling member	3869 label Biography information for Lord Myners