Mr. Brian Hayes:

We have written to the CRU and ComReg outlining our concerns in the process and citing the fact we have had pretty regular engagement with the direct debit operator community, who have come to all those meetings and who appreciate the information from our remaining and exiting banks about their plans. They are getting ready for the significant transaction changes that are going to occur. The points I was making in both correspondence we sent to the other regulators were around the timeliness, the resourcing issue, and meeting us to see if we can do something together.

I am aware that people have made suggestions. The Financial Services Union is on record as looking for a task force. Our colleagues in the Central Bank made the point to us yesterday around organising the stakeholder bit. We are open to doing anything. We would be at any meeting, at any time, at any place and anywhere, when everyone is around the table. There needs to be a bit more joined-up action here. I am not laying blame on other regulators here. I am just saying that we would be grateful if what the Central Bank has done in highlighting to other financial services entities under its authority, they would do the same to other entities under their authority in other regulatory settings. That will take a bit of time. We will be around any table at any stage. There is an enormous amount of knowledge across the sector, as the committee is hearing today from our colleagues on the exiting and the remaining side, which can help us all to get there.