Date of meeting: 6 October 2021
Location: This meeting took place via video/audio link
Minutes
Item 1 - Standing agenda items
15 September 2021 minutes
The group agreed the 15 September 2021 minutes, and approved their publication.
Sharing information on stakeholder management
None.
Item 2 - Progress update
Decision making process
The Bank thanked members for their participation in a recent round of trilateral meetings with the project team and the Bank of England. These were helpful in identifying both areas of support and any remaining challenges. Members are currently assessing the business case through their own internal governance processes. Upon completion the Bank, as chair of WDSG, will email all members to ask formally for their decision on whether they support the business case and wish to proceed to the next phase of development.
The chair raised that if there is insufficient support to proceed with the utility model business case as proposed, the Bank will be looking for industry to bring forward credible and measurable commitments to meet the success criteria that were agreed by WDSG at the start of the project.
Next steps
Eversheds reported that a plan of work will be developed with industry after the decision point, and reported back to the WDSG in a timely manner. This will be dependent on the level of support achieved for the utility, and whether any adjustments to the business case are required and feasible to build consensus. Should the utility model not receive sufficient support then a mechanism will need to be agreed with appropriate controls in place to facilitate the required discussions.
Items 3 - Public update
The Bank outlined a proposal for the WDSG to provide a public update after the decision point, irrespective of the outcome of that decision. It will be important at this stage of the development work to summarise progress made and set out the next steps.
The Bank proposed a target publication date before the end of year, as this needs to be a timely summary of the work. WDSG members agreed to establish a team to help deliver this.
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, Molly Galligan
Eversheds: Ros Kellaway, Trystan Richards, Russell Saunders, Mark McLintock
KPMG: Chris Barnes
Barclays: Tim Allen
HSBC: Sue Yarham
Lloyds Banking Group: Richard Hill
Natwest: Richard Talbot
Santander UK: Robert White
HM Treasury: Azin Roussos, Derek Dunne, Kaelan Bhate
Virgin Money: Derek Walker
Danske: Kevin McMullan
G4S: Paul Van Der Knapp
TRM: Mark Loveridge
Vaultex: Mark Trevor
Apologies
James Best (BOE), Paul Pugh (Eversheds), Simon Walker (KPMG), Martin Barrett (Lloyds), Russell Hancock (Santander), Phil Vaughan (Vaultex), Anne Jessopp (TRM), Julie Fitzgibbon (BOI), John Garrett (AIB)