It is true to say that the report looked at a range of different models, but the weight of its consideration was quite clearly on how a public bank for Wales might be used to plug gaps in the wider economy, rather than looking at examples of how alternatives to high-street banking for customers coming in off the street might be developed. It does make a reference to the Hampshire model, although the last time that I asked for some information on the practical implementation of the Hampshire model, it wasn't looking as though it had made the progress that was hoped for by its originators.

The Public Policy Institute for Wales report says that the introduction of any model would be 'very challenging and complex' here in Wales. So, I think that the answer to the developments that the Member rightly points to may not be in the public bank debate that is very healthily going on in Wales, but in other things that we might be able to do: making sure that the Post Office is well placed to take on a wider range of banking activities, using the support that the Welsh Government provides to the post office network in Wales, making sure that credit union membership is available right across Wales, using the nearly £0.5 million of additional investment that we're providing for credit unions this year—I've this week discussed with some credit union interests whether financial transaction capital might be useful to them in facing some of the challenges that they have to get over—and, by that community-level activity, to do what we can to make sure that the services on the high street that people have used hitherto in banking, but are, we have to recognise, using less and less—that we still have high-street access for people who need it.