In a letter to Howard Flight MP, I formulated the amendment that we are seeking as follows:

It has been found

a)                  That there is no supervisory body to penalise banks when they break the Banking Act

b)                  Neither the FSA, Bank of England or the Treasury take on individual cases where customers of banks are seeking justice

c)                  Banks seek settlements out of court for they fear bad publicity

d)                  The Banking Ombudsman is exceedingly inefficient in handling problems and only achieves 2% settlements while Bank Victim groups reach settlements for nearly all of their victims – sums up to £7.7 million have been mentioned!

The objective of the amendment that we are seeking is therefore to ensure that:

a)                  individual customers of the day-to-day business of banks who suffer from ‘bad lending’, ‘mis-selling’ or ‘over-charging’ are receiving adequate satisfaction from the FSA

b)                  banks with their often rather devastating practices are not beyond the law.

The amendment is now being tabled by Lord Ahmed on behalf of Lord Caithness while he is travelling in Canada.