Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)

I think these regulations help clarify all that. As far as small and medium-sized businesses are concerned, the Treasury Select Committee published figures in 2024 on the termination of business accounts in 2023. They were sourced from eight UK banks. The Treasury estimates that, on average, around 64% of business accounts were terminated due to suspicious activity or financial crime, due diligence or fraud, 10% were terminated because of dormancy and less than 1% for political exposure or other issues. We can all amplify the politically exposed people, and we know it is important, but the vast majority of closures and issues that we have are with financial crime and due diligence. On the other question, we all want everyone who wants to have a bank account to have one. The decision to provide banking services is generally a commercial one by providers. I have already mentioned that 120 to 150, I think, banking hubs have been opened already, and a lot more will be opened. It is not a target. Once we get there, we can probably open more, but that has to be in consultation with the industry. The Government want to ensure that customers are treated fairly when providers decide to withdraw those services. We are focused on account terminations as a priority, given the material impact that a loss of banking services could have on a business already in operation. More widely, the Government continue to monitor evidence in relation to accessing banking services and welcome the FCA’s work in this area.