Apart from the individual consumers being thwarted by the banks' arbitrary decision, there are also the business community and the wider implications for the country. In the United States the consumer confidence index is the one index which indicates how the country is doing. If consumers are spending, the country is operating and vice versa. This is causing damage to the country as well as to individual consumers. It is extraordinary in 2003 to have a statement, "It is not in our competency to pass it on". I am interested in the Minister of State's statement that the financial regulator now intends to carry out a survey of interest rates in respect of various lending and borrowing rates and pass any relevant information to the Competition Authority in the context of its study of the banking industry. I hope it will hurry with it and the findings are issued warts and all.