Mr. Ger Deering:

We have a very broad remit, as has been mentioned a few times already. We see our remit as dealing with individual conduct. We do not interfere with the commercial discretion of financial service providers. It would be a bridge too far for us to get into that space. It is not something for which we would seek extra powers. Our powers are quite broad as they are, which is about conduct as it affects individuals. To return to our earlier conversation, it is not for me to comment on the actions of a bank in terms of competition or otherwise, but with the current banks and pillar financial service providers which we deal with, we know where they are based. They have bricks and mortar in this country, we can contact them, we have meetings with them and we have occasion to contact the CEO if we are not happy with the response the office is receiving from them. The whole thing is moving, however, to organisations which are competing with these existing banks and which may not be in the country at all. It will be very different for everybody. I do not believe it would be helpful if our remit was to extend in some way to forcing financial service providers to provide a particular type of service or provide a service in a particular area. That would be us interfering with commercial discretion and would undermine the work that we currently do. We have to keep that independence in terms of our role.