Date of meeting: 14 July 2021 | Location: This meeting took place via video/audio link
Minutes
Item 1 – Standing agenda items
14 July 2021 minutes:
The group agreed the 30 June 2021 minutes, and approved their publication
Sharing information on stakeholder management
Sarah John noted that she had spoken about Access to Cash at the Industry and Parliament Trust (IPT) that morning. Attending MPs expressed a keen interest in the progress of the wholesale work.
The Bank also noted that as part of their regular cross authority engagement they were in the process of engaging with the Competition Markets Authority (CMA) to provide them with an update on the Wholesale Work, as they had done in the past.
Item 2 – Progress Update
Project status
Eversheds reported that the last few weeks had been very productive as this phase of work enters the final stages, with clean team and commercial discussions now running in parallel.
An extra week has been added to close out some project deliverables, ensure members have the right information to inform their final decision, and allow for further discussions. The finalised business case and glidepath will now be shared with IEM members on 23 July and subsequently to WDSG.
Commercial discussions update
Eversheds summarised some of the key high-level issues that were being worked through as part of the commercial discussions, and where further information is required for the business case to help inform members’ decisions. This included the debt/equity funding requirements, ownership/governance structure, IT infrastructure and the transition path towards a utility model. Over the next week Eversheds will be running a programme of working groups and commercial sessions to develop these areas further.
Summary of Utility (SPV) business case
KPMG provided a progress update on some of the main outstanding issues from the previous phase of work, including the service catalogue/ provision of cash services and the cash ownership options. These issues are being developed further through a number of dedicated commercial discussions which are now underway.
High level overview of transition process
KPMG discussed the proposed transition plan for standing up the Utility. This included a possible path for how the operations of the four existing operators could be brought together over time, with the final utility, covering all in scope operations by 2024. They noted that a lot of this timeline was dependent on obtaining CMA clearance and that there would be restrictions on any work taking place prior to this clearance being obtained.
Signposting to the end of phase 3a
Eversheds provided an update on the remaining detail work plan in order to finalise phase 3a, including the expected objectives and deliverables from each meeting that will take place.
Item 3 – Review Action Log
Actions were reviewed and closed where applicable.
Item 4 – AOB
None.
Committee attendees
Bank of England: Sarah John (Chair), Elisabeth Bertalanffy-Fournier, James Best, Molly Galligan
Eversheds: Ros Kellaway, Trystan Richards, Russell Saunders, Mark McLintock
KPMG: Simon Walker
Barclays: Tim Allen
HSBC: Sue Yarham
Lloyds Banking Group: Martin Barrett
Natwest: Colin Brindley
Santander UK: Robert White
HM Treasury: Abigail White
Virgin Money: Derek Walker
G4S: Paul Van Der Knapp
TRM: Anne Jessopp
Vaultex: Phil Vaughan
Apologies
Nick Butt (BOE), Ronan McClintock (BOE), Paul Pugh (Eversheds), Richard Talbot (Natwest), Russell Hancock (Post Office), Azin Roussos (HMT), Kevin McMullan (Danske), Julie Fitzgibbon (BOI), John Garrett (AIB)