Date of meeting: 4 May 2021 | Location: This meeting took place via audio link
Minutes
Item 1 – Standing agenda items
- April 2021 minutes:
The group agreed the April 2021 minutes, and approved their publication
- Sharing information on stakeholder management
The Bank and some WDSG members noted that there had been an increased level of media and political interest around access to cash, which had included the work of the wholesale distribution review.
Item 2 – WDSG Terms of Reference
The updated Terms of Reference for WDSG, which reflect the new governance structure for the next phase of the development work, were approved by members subject to minor amendments.
Item 3 – Next phase of work
Progress update – Legal documentation / clean team requirements
Eversheds reported that good progress had been made since the last meeting on the legal documentation which was now being finalised. This meant the project was now progressing to plan.
The requirement for establishing a clean team for the next phase of work had also been considered, with a 2-staged proposal put to members. Stage 1 would address asset selection and involve bilateral discussions between the independent project team and the NCS operators to obtain the necessary information. Stage 2 would assess the commercial implications from stage 1, inviting financial specialists from the member banks to review the output to help inform the most appropriate asset selection and pricing structure. Feedback on the clean team proposal was requested by the end of the week.
Nine week project plan
Eversheds reported that the 9 week plan for the next phase of the work was being updated reflecting the proposed clean team requirements, and will be presented to the group for agreement ahead of the next WDSG.
Forward look / WDSG meetings
A potential risk to the overall timeline was flagged as a result of the 2-stage clean team approach. This could potentially take longer than anticipated if several iterations are required for agreement. This will be the focus at the Industry Escalation Meeting on Friday 7 May.
Eversheds confirmed that all the member banks and operators were represented in the next phase of the work and had their legal advisors involved.
Item 4 – Review Action Log
Actions were reviewed and closed where applicable
Item 5 – AOB
None.
Committee attendees
Bank of England: Sarah John (Chair), Nick Butt, Elisabeth Bertalanffy-Fournier, Ronan McClintock, Camilla Pegg, Molly Galligan
Eversheds: Ros Kellaway, Trystan Richards, Russell Saunders, Mark McLintock
Barclays: Tim Leyden
HSBC: Sue Yarham
Lloyds Banking Group: Richard Hill
Post Office: Russell Hancock
Natwest: Richard Talbot
Santander UK: Robert White
HM Treasury: Derek Dunne
Virgin Money: Derek Walker
Danske: Kevin McMullan
G4S: Mike Bowen
Vaultex: Mark Trevor
Royal Mint: Mark Loveridge
Apologies
Julie Fitzgibbon (BOI), John Garrett (AIB), Paul Van Der Knapp(G4S), Azin Roussos (HM Treasury), Anne Jessopp (Royal Mint), Martin Barrett (Lloyds), Tim Allen (Barclays), Phil Vaughan (Vaultex)