City of London Official Dismisses Fears of Lack of Oversight in UK Financial Sector After Brexit

LONDON (dpa-AFX) – The chief policy officer for the City of London financial district has dismissed fears of a lack of oversight of the UK financial sector. “That’s not the right way,” said Chris Hayward of the German Press Agency. Headlines suggesting that the City of London could become a “Singapore-on-Thames” (Singapore on the Thames) with lax rules for financial service providers as a result of Brexit were completely untrue, stressed Hayward.

The Policy Chairman of the City of London Corporation wanted to set off for talks in Berlin and Frankfurt on Monday to promote a rapprochement after Brexit. He is to meet representatives of the federal government and the Bundesbank there.

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, advocates good regulation with both major parties in Great Britain, which promotes growth. Hayward said he was confident that this message would get through no matter who would govern the country after the general election expected in 2024.

Hayward said his trip to Germany was primarily about rebuilding trust after the quarrels of the Brexit years. Unfortunately, the service industry was not included in the Brexit trade agreement. It makes up a large part of British economic output. The so-called “Square Mile”, as the financial district is also known, is responsible for 13 percent of British tax revenue. It is all the more important that an agreement in principle with Brussels (Memorandum of Understanding), which has been on hold for years due to the dispute over the Brexit rules for Northern Ireland, is now being pushed forward.

The city has not suffered as much as feared from Brexit. According to Hayward, instead of tens of thousands of jobs, only around 7,000 jobs were lost to other locations such as Dublin, Paris or Frankfurt in the entire British financial services sector. But the past few years have been “very, very, very tough,” he admitted. Almost 590,000 people work in the City of London.

The City of London, which roughly encompasses the area of ​​the historic old town, is the center 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 the Lord Mayor. In addition to the interests of the financial industry, the corporation also performs municipal administrative tasks in its district.