Member

I close by returning to the central point. These regulations are welcome in so far as they reduce unnecessary compliance burdens and make targeted improvements to the existing framework, but they do not answer the wider question. The fight against money laundering and terrorist financing is vital but, if the system designed to prevent financial crime ends up driving out of our banking system charities, lawful individuals and small businesses—I know people running small businesses who are certainly not engaged in financial crime but have run into trouble in setting up accounts—it is not working as well as it should. I hope that the changes will ameliorate matters but I urge the Government not only to proceed with the sensible elements of the regulations before us but to look again at the wider regime, including its costs, its complexity, its unintended consequences, its enforcement and its impact on ordinary customers and businesses.