The UK’s world-leading financial services sector must adopt a more positive attitude that puts innovation and entrepreneurial spirit at its heart, the Lord Mayor will say in a speech in which he is also expected to urge City regulators to redouble their efforts to slash red tape.
In what will be some of his last remarks as the City’s political figurehead, Alastair King will issue a rallying cry for the City to embrace risk and relinquish the “excessive layers of regulation” and “stereotypical British reserve” preventing the City from fulfilling its economic potential.
“Despite [the City’s] obvious strengths, for years now, there has been a wall of regulation, over-caution, risk-aversion and under-confidence holding us back,” he is set to tell senior City figures on Wednesday, adding: “For a long time now, many of us in the financial services sector have felt the need for a smarter regulatory system that not only protects consumers and supports competition but encourages innovation and growth.
“Has that wall of unnecessary regulation come crashing down in the last year? No. But it is coming down.”
Watchdogs have shown ‘fighting spirit’ – Lord Mayor
Financial watchdogs have spent much of the past year scrambling to meet a demand from the Chancellor to reevaluate their approach to regulation as a means of slashing the barriers blocking economic growth.
In the past few months, both the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have unveiled a string of policies – including reducing reporting burdens on banks and opening up cryptocurrency tracker funds to retail investors – as a means of encouraging risk and watering down regulation.
King, who will be replaced as Lord Mayor by Dame Susan Langley next month, will praise the “fighting spirit” shown by regulators since the Chancellor’s call to arms, and accuse some bosses of using regulation as an “excuse” for a lack action.
“It is not just over-regulation that is holding the United Kingdom back: it is our attitude,” he will say.
“At a time when rival financial centres like New York are investing and innovating at speed there is no place for the stereotypical British reserve.”
The Lord Mayor will deliver his remarks at the annual City Regulators’ Dinner, where the bosses of the PRA and FCA are also expected to give speeches on the state of regulation.
The Lord Mayor’s comments are in keeping with the ‘Growth Unleashed’ theme of his one-year term, and follow a similar speech delivered at the City of London Biennial Meeting, in which he lamented the “nervousness” that plagued the Square Mile.