After the quarrels of the Brexit years: British bankers travel to Berlin and Frankfurt to build confidence

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London's financial district: A plea for good regulation

Photo: NEIL HALL / EPA

The City of London's chief policy officer has dismissed fears of a lack of oversight of the UK's financial sector. "That's not the way to go," said Chris Hayward. Headlines suggesting that the City of London could develop into a "Singapore-on-Thames" with lax rules for financial service providers as a result of Brexit were completely untrue, Hayward stressed.

The policy chairman of the City of London Corporation wanted to leave for talks in Berlin and Frankfurt on Monday to promote a rapprochement after Brexit. He wants to meet representatives of the Federal Government and the Bundesbank there.

Not in the interest of the city

It is not in the interest of the City of London to get into "a downward spiral" in the regulation of the financial markets, he stressed. The City, on the other hand, is lobbying both major parties in the UK for good regulation that promotes growth. He is convinced that this message has been received no matter who will govern the country after the parliamentary elections expected in 2024, Hayward continued.

The main aim of his trip to Germany is to rebuild trust after the quarrels of the Brexit years, Hayward said. Unfortunately, the service industry was not taken into account in the Brexit trade agreement. It accounts for a large part of the UK's economic output. The so-called "Square Mile", as the financial district is also called, is responsible for 13 percent of British tax revenues. This makes it all the more important to push ahead with a memorandum of understanding with Brussels, which has been on hold for years because of the dispute over the Brexit rules for Northern Ireland.

The City has apparently not suffered as much as feared as a result of Brexit. Instead of tens of thousands of jobs, only about 7000,590 jobs were lost to other locations such as Dublin, Paris or Frankfurt in the entire British financial services sector, according to Hayward. But the past few years have been "very, very, very hard," he admitted. Almost 000,<> people work in the City of London.

The City of London, which roughly covers the area of the historic old town, is the central location of the British financial industry and has a centuries-old special status. It is administered by the City of London Corporation, which is headed by an annually elected representative known as Lord Mayor. In addition to the interests of the financial industry, the corporation also performs municipal administrative functions in its district.

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