Dr. Colin Hunt:

At the outset, we have experience of a similar regime in Britain. We have operations across the Irish Sea. The bank would fall under the senior manager regime, SMR. I suspect this is similar to what will be introduced here, under the expected SEAR legislation. The Senator referred to stakeholders earlier. How do we define stakeholders? If we went back 20 years, the stakeholders would have been a reasonably narrow group of people. However, I am conscious that alongside our regulatory licence to operate, we have a social licence to operate. We have a duty to a broad array of stakeholders, who are our customers, our staff, our regulators, our shareholders and the wider public. This is because of the extraordinary role that this bank has in the well-being of this country. I am conscious, as I said, of the social licence to operate. We warmly welcome the expected introduction of the SEAR legislation. We believe it will be supportive of the best management of the banking industry and of the ultimate restoration of our reputation and of trust across the banking system. I have not had any specific discussions with Government on this. It is a matter for Government and for the regulator to arrive at the legislation. However, the commitment I can make today is that when the legislation is introduced and enacted, we will abide by it faithfully, to the letter and to the spirit.