Ms Derville Rowland:

That is true. In that FCA paper and in many of the other papers it is pointed out that this may not be the preferable option. The FCA talks about collars, positive nudges and disclosures to customers. The authority talks about that because the FCA has produced other literature on this topic to do with the United Kingdom finding that bans can act as a dampener to competition and can increase pricing, which can be bad for those at the more marginal end who could do better where they are price sensitive and could shop around. They were using the utilities interventions in England as an example where they saw a price ban acting as a depressant on competition and it did not improve pricing. They unwound that. I simply say this because it is a very complicated topic. The overwhelming evidence is that one needs to get underneath why this is happening and get to the cause of it in order to build an intervention that can deal with it.

It is true that all of us would want to see consumers getting good deals with products that suit their needs and that pay out when events happen at prices that are good for them. There is a significant competition dimension to it.