Mr. Gerry Cross:

I thank the Chairman. I felt this was going slightly beyond my brief for today. The point about what consumers are able to understand in respect of different products and offers is important and it is central to the work that goes on in Europe and the Central Bank. An example from the recent past is the packaged retail investment products, PRIPs, framework, which has been a long exercise to try to have one or two pages on what exactly the terms of the product on offer are and how to make that meaningful for consumers. There are many examples. The Deputy mentioned the issue of online banking. One thing we published in the recent past is a discussion paper on how to achieve consumer protection in the context of financial services in a digitalised context. How does it work if people do not read terms and conditions any more because they press "I agree" as we all do? How would that work? That is a discussion paper which I think has been well-received and which lays the foundation for us to engage further in that. The issues the Deputy raises are important and exercise us and colleagues on a European level. The PRIPs example is one that took place across three ESAs and was a reason why we called for a single committee. It was quite difficult to have the same discussion across three different ESAs but it was done across all three ESAs. Noting the concerns the Deputy articulated, which are very familiar with us, those are things we are committed to addressing.