Unclaimed Assets Within The Financial System
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Unclaimed Assets Within The Financial System
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Author : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee
language : en
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Release Date : 2007-08-06
Unclaimed Assets Within The Financial System written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee and has been published by The Stationery Office this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2007-08-06 with Business & Economics categories.
Between £400 to £500 million is currently held in dormant bank and building society accounts in the UK where, for whatever reason, a financial institution has lost contact with an account holder. A large proportion of this money will never be reclaimed by its rightful owner. The Government, working with the banking industry, has therefore proposed the establishment of an unclaimed assets scheme to put these dormant accounts to productive use whilst continuing to recognise the ongoing rights of customers to reclaim their accounts at any stage. The Committee's report examines the proposed legislative framework for the scheme and its regulation, how to define and identify dormant accounts, the scope of the scheme, the proposed scheme to reunify customers with dormant accounts, a centralised national register for unclaimed assets, dormant accounts in building societies, the distribution of funds released from unclaimed assets, funding of a Social Investment Bank and local disbursement options.
Pre Budget Report 2009
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Author : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee
language : en
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Release Date : 2010
Pre Budget Report 2009 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee and has been published by The Stationery Office this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010 with Business & Economics categories.
This report acknowledges that deciding the right time for fiscal consolidation requires making a fine judgement about the resilience of the recovery. It emphasises that a plan to restore the health of the public finances must deal with the structural deficit. While the Treasury aims to cut the deficit from 9% of GDP to 3.6% of GDP in four years, the expert witnesses who examined it all criticised the document for not providing enough information about how this will be achieved. Future Budgets and PBRs should attempt to quantify the downside risks around the structural deficit forecast. There will be uncertainty in these figures, but they are produced as part of the Spending Review process so there appears to be no argument against their publication. Similarly the Bank of England publishes forecasts showing the possible range of inflation rates and publishing information about debt interest on a similar basis would be useful. The recession appears to have had substantially less impact on the labour market than might have been feared, though concern remains about the level of youth unemployment. Repossessions have been far lower than expected however it is recommended that the Treasury proceeds cautiously over the timing of removal of Government support in this area. We do not want to see a return to the times of easy credit, but the Government needs to remain aware of the risk that lending will not support renewed private sector growth as the public sector retrenches. The purpose of the tax on bank bonuses is to change behaviour so that banks increase their capital, rather than providing large discretionary payments to employees. The next Parliament needs to examine the effectiveness of any regime introduced by the Financial Services Bill, in terms both of its success in altering bank behaviour, and of its effect on the competitiveness of the UK financial sector
Administration And Expenditure Of The Chancellor S Departments 2007 08
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Author : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee
language : en
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Release Date : 2009
Administration And Expenditure Of The Chancellor S Departments 2007 08 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee and has been published by The Stationery Office this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2009 with Business & Economics categories.
The Treasury Sub-Committee calls for much greater transparency from the Treasury in accounting for the liabilities taken on by the nationalisation and part-nationalisation of financial institutions. The report recommends that these disclosures appear in the annual Treasury resource accounts. Furthermore they should be at least as comprehensive as those made by major corporations and go further than meeting the minimum acceptable accounting standards. In particular, the Report notes that the Treasury's 2007-08 Annual Report and Accounts cover the Government's financial relationship with Northern Rock but do not comment on its performance under temporary public ownership. Given the level of interest in the fully nationalised institutions of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, and the Treasury's role in their governance, the report recommends that key performance information for these institutions be published in the resource accounts as well. The wholesale nationalisation of Northern Rock, and Bradford & Bingley has created governance responsibilities for the Treasury while these entities remain under public ownership. The Government's announcements of October 2008 created further responsibilities regarding the oversight of part-nationalised banks, and created a new body, UK Financial Investments (UKFI). The report calls for UKFI to report annually to Parliament and to be accountable to the Treasury Committee. The Committee wants the Government to identify and publish performance indicators for UKFI, and to report against these measures on a six-monthly basis. All these developments are additional challenges for the Treasury and require it to act in areas its current staff base may not be fully equipped for or familiar with. The Government must ensure the Treasury is sufficiently resourced to manage the extended responsibilities arising from the economic downturn, especially those regarding financial stability.
Too Important To Fail Too Important To Ignore
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Author : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee
language : en
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Release Date : 2010-03-29
Too Important To Fail Too Important To Ignore written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee and has been published by The Stationery Office this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010-03-29 with Business & Economics categories.
The Treasury Committee considers the issue of the existence of a type of financial firm, or firms which are "too important to fail" - so integral to the financial system that it was necessary for governments to bail them out during the banking crisis. The report concludes that the actions governments had to take to ensure financial stability have resulted in a market which operates on the assumption that systemically important firms will be rescued if necessary, and radical reform is needed. The report looks at the range of reforms currently under consideration, and assesses them against the objectives of an orderly banking system; protecting the consumer, protecting the taxpayer, setting an appropriate cost of doing business and providing lending to the economy. It emphasises that successful reform would transfer risk away from Government and back into the banking sector. The report is doubtful about how far evolutionary reform can make sufficient changes. The government has ruled out structural reforms such as narrow banking, unlike the USA, and the report calls for the debate on banking reform to remain as wide as possible. The United Kingdom can only benefit from constructive international agreement, but that prevarication on international agreement must not be used as an excuse to delay, or, at worst, prevent reform. As Britain has a very large banking system relative to GDP compared to other countries, its reform is anyway in the UK's own self-interest, even if it is not coordinated with reforms in other countries.
Administration And Expenditure Of The Chancellor S Departments 2006 07
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Author : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee
language : en
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Release Date : 2008-03-07
Administration And Expenditure Of The Chancellor S Departments 2006 07 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee and has been published by The Stationery Office this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008-03-07 with Business & Economics categories.
This is the first annual scrutiny by the Treasury Committee of the Chancellor of Exchequer's Departments. The Committee sets out a number of conclusions and recommendations, including: that the Treasury should include within its' annual reports a summary of the results of the annual surveys of stakeholder opinion and the Treasury's response to stakeholders; the Committee recommends that the Treasury set itself a target to ensure that the Public Service Agreements finalised as part of the next Spending Review in 2009 or 2010 include a clear statement about the resources to be allocated across Government to the delivery of each Agreement; the Committee criticises the Treasury's failure to meet its objective for the appointment of professionally-qualified Finance Directors in all Departments by December 2006 and that a relevant accountancy qualification be described as an essental criterion in all future post advertisements; the Committee views the Value for Money Delivery Agreements across Government as disappointing, and wants the Government to develop programmes that measure quality of service and efficiency effectively; the Committee commends the Royal Mint's return to profitability but is concerned about the ambitious target set for next year; that the Office of Government Commerce has failed to publish a regular annual report; the Committee expresses surprise that HM Revenue and Customs had approved a 60% increase in senior civil service bonus payments over a period of poor performance and headcount reductions, also the Committee highlights the problems experienced in VAT registrations and the failure of HMRC to meet its processing target of VAT receipts as well as poor administration of tax credits.
Budget 2009
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Author : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee
language : en
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Release Date : 2009
Budget 2009 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee and has been published by The Stationery Office this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2009 with Business & Economics categories.
This report examines the forecasts and measures contained in the 2009 Budget (HC 107, session 2008-09, ISBN 9780102959161). The Committee noted that there is considerable uncertainty around the Government's GDP growth forecasts for 2009-2011, reflecting the fact that the UK economy is in uncharted territory. Whilst it is possible that the Government will meet its growth forecasts on the available evidence the Committee considers this an optimistic assumption. They question the decision to assume that the economy will begin registering positive growth as early as the fourth quarter of 2009 and that the economy will register such strong growth in 2011. The Committee's concern is in that the sharp recovery in consumption forecast for 2011 might be too optimistic given that the UK economy will only just have emerged from a sharp downturn. The strong rebound forecast in consumption growth from 2011 onwards has important implications for whether the rebalancing of the UK economy with a shift away from consumption and a rise in the savings ratio, is merely a short-term phenomenon. The Committee notes it is too early to judge whether the November 2008 fiscal stimulus has been successful.The Committee looked at unemployment and considers it too early to judge whether the Government's proposed guarantee of a job, work placement or training scheme for all young people who have been on Jobseekers Allowance for 12 months together with the monetary and fiscal stimuli will be sufficiently timely and substantial response to the unemployment challenge.For public finances the Committee recommends that future budgets and pre-budget reports provide a sectoral analysis of tax revenues so that as the UK economy becomes less dependent on financial services and other sectors become more prominent, the basis of the Treasury's revenue forecasts can be scrutinised. The Committee was concerned over the lack of any substantial measures to combat child poverty. For the housing market the Committee calls for a more stable framework for the payment of Local Housing Allowance and welcome the help announced for homeowners but regret the delays in implementation and lack of clarity in respect of some of the schemes, recommending that clear information is provided. The vehicle scrappage is noted to be of importance to the car industry and that it has been welcomed in some quarters and await the pre-budget 2009 report to assess how effective the scheme has been. The Committee believes there are uncertainties over the yield to be raised by the 50 percent top rate of income tax and recommend that the Treasury should report in the 2011 PBR on the revenue raised both nominally and as a percentage of the theoretical maximum revenue by this new top rate.Regarding tax relief on pensions the Committee notes the departure from the long standing principle that tax relief for pension contributions should be given at an individuals marginal rate tax and urges the Treasury to monitor the effect of this change, keeping under review the possibility that a cap on annual contributions might be a more equitable way of reducing the percentage of tax relief that benefits the highest earners.
Budget Measures And Low Income Households
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Author : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee
language : en
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Release Date : 2008
Budget Measures And Low Income Households written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee and has been published by The Stationery Office this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008 with Business & Economics categories.
This report examines the impact of the abolition of the 10 pence rate of income tax, considering separately the effects of initial implementation and the effects in the light of the changes to personal allowances announced on 13 May 2008. The losers from the measures as initially implemented were people whose taxable income was small and for whom the loss might be significant when required to manage a personal or household budget at a time of sharply rising prices for many essential goods and services. For the current tax year, in the circumstances which the Chancellor of the Exchequer faced, the option chosen on 13 May of increasing personal allowances, but confining the benefits to basic rate taxpayers, was probably the least bad option, with the benefits of simplicity, transparency and greater incentives to work on the basis that fewer taxpayers face high marginal deduction rates. However, £2 billion of the £2.7 billion committed to that measure is not devoted to compensating losers from the removal of the starting rate of income tax, and is not well-targeted. The Government must learn lessons relating to budgetary processes. The Government should publish a Household Impact Assessment alongside future Budgets and Pre-Budget Reports. There is a pressing need for the Government to compensate the remaining 1.1 million households who lose from the removal of the starting rate of income tax even after the 13 May changes. In the longer-term, reforms should be centred on the greater challenges faced by the Government in combating poverty. The Committee recommends the establishment of a Poverty Commission on a similar basis to the Pensions Commission to examine the public policy challenges relating to poverty.
Inherited Estates
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Author : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee
language : en
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Release Date : 2008
Inherited Estates written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee and has been published by The Stationery Office this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008 with Business & Economics categories.
With-profits funds offer long-term investment products and are managed by life insurance companies, both proprietary and mutual. Policyholder premiums are held in a pooled fund that is invested in a range of assets, with a significant proportion in equities and property. Inherited estates are defined by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) as "the part of the with-profits fund over and above what is required to meet the fund's liabilities that the insurer retains as working capital; it will also include any excess surplus in the fund." Firms will often "smooth" out returns to policyholders in order to cushion policyholders from the extremes of fluctuations in the property and equity markets. The with-profits sector has suffered from conflicts of interest on the part of the management of life funds by proprietary companies, leading to concern among some holders of with-profits policies that their interests have not been adequately protected. All stakeholders in with-profits funds deserve a framework which provides as much simplicity, certainty and clarity as possible. The Committee is not satisfied that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has done enough to provide a robust framework within which these conflicts of interest can be managed. The use of inherited estate in smoothing returns to policyholders between good and bad years is clearly appropriate, but more should be done by the industry to improve the transparency of their application of smoothing techniques. The Committee also comments on funding of new business, mis-selling compensation costs, shareholder tax, phasing of special distribution payouts, and the resources, remit and visibility of With-profits Committees.
The 2008 Budget
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Author : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee
language : en
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Release Date : 2008
The 2008 Budget written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee and has been published by The Stationery Office this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008 with Business & Economics categories.
This report examines the forecasts and measures contained in the 2008 Budget (HC 455, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780102953336). The Treasury's lower forecasts for economic growth in 2008 and 2009 are above the average of independent forecasters, suggesting that the Treasury may have given insufficient weight to the risks of continued financial market turbulence and that some of the UK economy's characteristics that have proven beneficial in past crises (rapidly rising residential property prices, close links with the US and an increasing reliance on the financial services industry, for example) might prove to be conduits through which the current problems in global financial markets are transmitted to the UK real economy. The further weakening of the forecasts for the public finances is noted, and it appears premature for the Treasury to state that it is "on course" to meet the golden rule in the next economic cycle, given the lack of an end date for the previous economic cycle. Measures on child poverty are welcomed, but there is a need for a clear explanation on deployment of resources to ensure that the target to halve child poverty by 2010-11 will be achieved. The abolition of the 10 pence rate of income tax will most affect those under 65 years of age, in childless households, earning under £18,500: the Committee feels this group is an unreasonable target for raising additional tax revenues. The Treasury should commission research into whether the withdrawal of the 10 pence income tax band and high marginal deduction rates are creating disincentives that could frustrate the Government's welfare to work objectives. The Committee also calls for a national Saving Gateway targeted at low-income households and more consideration of tax changes on the middle and lower income groups of non-domiciled taxpayers.
The Run On The Rock
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Author : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee
language : en
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Release Date : 2008-02
The Run On The Rock written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee and has been published by The Stationery Office this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008-02 with Political Science categories.
Incorporating HC 999 i-iv, session 2006-07