Debate: Banking and Financial Services

Linda spoke in the debate on 2 June:

“There will always be banking crises of one sort or another, but we should take steps to ensure that such a crisis cannot be precipitated by such irresponsibility. We must make it perfectly clear to the banks that consider themselves to be too globally interconnected and too big to be allowed to fail that their current subsidy-junkie status is a temporary one-off.

“We should take some financial services under our control. Discussions are going on around the world, among nations, between continents and internally within states. It is important that we make the sector work for the greater good of society at home as well as internationally. SNP members have long favoured the introduction of a currency exchange tax and I am pleased that the move towards a Tobin tax continues. Some 350 economists, including Joseph Stiglitz and Jeffrey Sachs, recently wrote to leaders of the G20 nations to suggest that such a mechanism be given recognition.

“We need a better model for Scotland’s banking industry and financial sector in general. We also need to consider the worth of the banks, insurance companies and other financial services in the sector. With help from the Scottish Government, the sector has begun to grow again. There are 1,500 new jobs in Glasgow and Edinburgh with Tesco Personal Finance and the insurance company, esure. More than half of Scotland’s financial services companies will recruit this year and three quarters of them are optimistic about the future.

“There is a lot to change and improve in Scotland. There is a lot to put right. Of course there is; no one denies that. However, Scotland has the strength to rebuild and to become stronger. There is a lot of good stuff going on in Scotland and we should praise the people who are doing the good stuff and help them to build on that success. We should hold on to the fact that Scotland can come out of this UK mess stronger than she was when she went in.”

Read the full debate at www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-10/sor0602-01.htm