§ Mr. John H. Osbornasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a study of the operation by Switzerland of separate schemes of minimum lending rate and bank interest rates for funds deposited, and used, by their nationals, against much lower rates offered to those depositing funds from outside countries, with a view to examining the applicability of such a scheme for the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. LawsonI have studied the arrangements of this kind operated at various times by the Swiss and German authorities. There are many channels for speculation other than flows into nonresident holdings of domestic bank390W deposits or domestic securities, most notably variations in the timings of international payments. This inevitably limits the effectiveness of such controls, especially where, as in the United Kingdom, there exists a sophisticated domestic capital market.