Morning:
8°c
The City begins its fight back this week with the launch of a lobby group to speak out for the financial services industry and allied professions in the Square Mile.
TheCityUK, backed by City grandees Sir Win Bischoff of Lloyds Banking Group and Bob Wigley, the former European boss of Merrill Lynch, is to be launched on Thursday with a remit to get the City's voice heard again after its reputation was shredded during the financial crisis.
Stuart Popham, the senior partner of top lawyer Clifford Chance who is to be the inaugural chairman of TheCityUK said: “We must put right the mistakes of the past, forge a new deal with the British public and establish a co-ordinated agenda to promote UK financial services on the European and world stages.”
Popham said TheCityUK will represent the financial community and “steer a clear, well-defined-course through the inevitable changes, reforms and reappraisals” that are a result of the backlash against bankers.
TheCityUK is playing down the possibility that it may be seen as an official opposition to Labour or Conservative plans for a crackdown on the Square Mile. It argues it has Government support and will work closely with ministers and officials.
TheCityUK, said Popham, is a natural evolution from the Wigley and Bischoff reports of the last year into the City.
The Wigley report said the City must prepare for and foot the bill for a new, supervisory regime which will replace the discredited principles-based regulation of the Financial Services Authority. It suggested a board to represent the whole City, with a wider remit than the Corporation of London.
The Bischoff Report for the Treasury said better regulation is needed but pleaded that the City be part-author of a new regime.
