Thank you for raising the community bank idea. Of course, we do support the principle of establishing a community bank, and developing this is a priority for us. By means of an update, the Welsh Government officials met, and the Development Bank of Wales met with potential stakeholders in the third sector and the private sector last year, including the Public Bank for Wales Action Group, and they're seeking to establish a community bank for Wales. We've provided advice on the process that would need to be followed in order to access seed funding.

Officials are now reviewing a specific proposal and a request for seed funding from the Public Bank for Wales Action Group, working in collaboration with the UK-wide Community Savings Bank Association. Seed funding would be used by the Public Bank for Wales Action Group to initiate a phase of work that would include stakeholder engagement, market assessment, and feasibility for a community bank for Wales, which will then progress to application for a banking licence. An application for a banking licence can take quite some time—two years or more, sometimes—in order to have the necessary work done with the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority. But I think it is too early to identify just how much capital funding we would be putting towards that and what element of subsidy might be needed on an ongoing basis. But that is all part of the work that is going on, but as I say, it is quite early days in terms of the project being scoped and discussions taking place with stakeholders.