Political views on charges

[London000]

Hi there everyone,

I have found the following letters from David Cameroon on Martins money open forum as well as from Nick Cleg.

here there are:

Nick Clegg did reply to our open letter to say:

"Dear Martin, as a subscriber to your weekly email, I saw your recent comments on unfair banking charges. I couldn't agree more with you about the scandalous nature of these charges
The Liberal Democrats have taken a strong stance on this for a long time - in particular, in our manifesto for complete reform of Britain's banking and financial institutions "A New Deal for the City", launched in May 2008 where we stated:[/font]

"The treatment of charges by the banks borders on the scandalous. It is a continuation of the practice described above: a protected industry seeking to maximise profits by exploiting the weakness of individual consumers who lack information and sophisticated knowledge of products or legal advice. The principle should be established that bank charges must be transparent and cost based."[/font]
In your email, you made a further suggestion that banks should have to pay back all unfair charges automatically if the courts do rule against them. This struck me as an extremely good idea that we should do all we can to put in place. Vince Cable, my shadow Chancellor, and I would be delighted to support your campaign.
We will put a motion before Parliament setting out our support for your idea as soon as the recess is over, which will hopefully put pressure on the government and the banks to act to return the money they so unfairly took from customers.
Finally, I'm really looking forward to receiving the manifesto you've been compiling on your site regarding other consumer issues. And I'm pleased to be able to let you know we will be having a debate on consumer protection at our conference in the autumn, where we hope to adopt some strong new policies for our manifesto]
All the best,

And David Cameroon

a reply from David Cameron to our open letter. This is an unedited version and is slightly politica

"Dear Martin,
Thank you for your letter about unfair bank charges. I am sorry that it has taken me a little while to reply while I have been away from London.[/font]

I'm glad you liked our White Paper. Voters now know that if they want to change the way their banks are regulated they need to change their Government.
I've never shied away from taking the right decision when it's in the interest of consumers. But equally, I don't think it is right to make policy decisions without a detailed analysis of the issues. After everything that's gone wrong over the last decade, people don't want to see politicians making policy on the hoof.
When it comes to the question of bank charges I know there are a number of unresolved legal questions, and that the original judgement on the charges is now being appealed. Obviously, we shouldn’t second-guess any possible court decision, but once the legal issues have been resolved I agree with you that bank customers must be compensated quickly and fairly for any unfair charges that they have had to pay.

So I've asked my Shadow Treasury Team to look at your suggestion that banks should pay money back automatically if the courts do rule that the charges are unfair. They will be in touch with you to take this forward and go through the details, and I hope you will feel able to stay in contact with them to discuss this further
Many thanks, once again, for writing to me. I think it's fantastic that websites like Money Saving Expert are empowering people to take more control over their own finances - so please do stay in touch.[/font]

Yours sincerely,
David Cameron

Interesting step ahead
DD