Is the UK slowly falling on its own sword.
Discussion
Regulations, Elf and safety and the press jumping on bandwagons..we've got rid of manufacturing by mainly cost implications, pharmaceutical companies because of rules and costs so now we want to turn on banking..the world must be sniggering at us.
lifted from the times.
Leading bankers from around the world have accused ministers of joining an anti-business bandwagon by pandering to public opinion and demonising company chiefs.
In interviews with The Times, top figures urged the Government to patch up relations with the City, warning that Britain’s reputation as a place to do business was at risk because of the way it reacted to controversy surrounding Stephen Hester and Fred Goodwin.
One senior executive at a Wall Street bank said: “London is now the worst major centre in the world in which to do banking.”
There are fears that the atmosphere will sour further in coming days as Barclays prepares to announce the bonus of Bob Diamond, its chief executive.
Directors of HSBC and Standard Chartered, UK-headquartered banks that do most of their business internationally, are concerned that the pressure on bonuses could extend to their executives, particularly if Mr Diamond decides to waive his bonus. “That would raise further questions in the minds of their shareholders about the wisdom of remaining based in Britain,” an adviser to one of the banks said. Both banks have raised the prospect of leaving the UK because of the growing regulatory burden and the new UK bank balance sheet tax which disadvantages them against foreign rivals.
Sir Philip Hampton, chairman of the state-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland, said that the Government and others had embarked on “a bit of an anti-business bandwagon”.
“Bashing people up who are actually there to help, doesn’t itself help,” he said in reference to Mr Hester, his chief executive, who waived a £1 million bonus this week after coming under huge pressure from ministers and Ed Miliband, the Labour leader.
“We knew there would be a difficult reaction ... but the scale of it took us by surprise. I think it took the Government by surprise too.”
Another senior banker said that the pressure from Downing Street to strip Fred Goodwin, the former RBS chief, of his knighthood was populist and inflamed the anti-business sentiment in the country. “There’s a bit of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde about Cameron and Osborne,” he said. “They come out with all the right language to us in private. But they can’t resist the call of the mob. Has this reduced our respect for the coalition? The answer without a shadow of a doubt is yes.”
All three party leaders have been competing to be the toughest on financial sector pay and bonuses. Mr Miliband, who used a speech in the City yesterday to call for an end to “corrosive” levels of remuneration, will force a Commons vote on “ending the bonus culture”. The vote on Tuesday is aimed at piling pressure on Mr Diamond to give up a multimillion-pound bonus, due to be announced on Friday. The overall bonus pot for Barclays’ 10,000 investment bankers is expected to be down by about 30 per cent.
Stuart Popham, the chairman of TheCityUK, a group that promotes the industry, warned against further escalation of the rhetoric. “Otherwise we put at risk the relationship between financial services and those in Parliament and more widely — a relationship that has to be improved so that we can all concentrate on growing the economy and doing our job,” he said.
A main board director of one of Britain’s biggest banks said: “In America our clients and investors are staggered at the way the UK seems hellbent on destroying one of the few industries where it competes globally.”
Another senior City figure said: “They’re lapping this up in Hong Kong [a financial centre that would love to poach more business from London]. The farther east you go, the greater the bemusement about the Government’s handling of these events.”
The financial services industry is a major wealth generator in the UK, responsible for 8.9 per cent of total output and £63 billion of total tax revenues, which is 12.1 per cent of total tax receipts. The more narrowly defined wholesale financial services market — the City in common parlance — contributes 2.8 per cent of GDP.
Disquiet has also emerged among Conservative donors. Lord Wolfson, the chief executive of Next who is also a major contributor to party funds, said that ministers should be careful about attacking individuals. “It is wrong to try to deal with it by demonising either Stephen Hester, unfairly, or with slightly more justification, Fred Goodwin,” he said. “Ultimately, business needs an environment where it believes the people running the government are going to be guided by principles and law, not political expediency.”
A recent study reported that from July 2010 to the end of June 2011, more than half of the £12.2 million handed to the Tory party’s central office came from donors linked to the City.
Mark Field, the Conservative MP for the City of London, said: “The Government is fast discovering that no amount of populist posturing will ever appease the mob. The view of many City folk I have spoken to in recent days is that the UK is at serious risk of being seen to overseas investors as far less open for business and a reliable bastion of commercial certainty than at any time since the 1980s.”
Non-banking leaders have been more supportive of the coalition, approving measures such as reducing corporation tax and reforming the tax treatment of multinationals. One said: “We still respect the coalition for their general economic policy — getting the deficit down and keeping the triple-A rating — but the trust is going. How can we know they won’t turn round and lift tax on executive pay? I don’t think Blair would have got himself into this position.”
lifted from the times.
Leading bankers from around the world have accused ministers of joining an anti-business bandwagon by pandering to public opinion and demonising company chiefs.
In interviews with The Times, top figures urged the Government to patch up relations with the City, warning that Britain’s reputation as a place to do business was at risk because of the way it reacted to controversy surrounding Stephen Hester and Fred Goodwin.
One senior executive at a Wall Street bank said: “London is now the worst major centre in the world in which to do banking.”
There are fears that the atmosphere will sour further in coming days as Barclays prepares to announce the bonus of Bob Diamond, its chief executive.
Directors of HSBC and Standard Chartered, UK-headquartered banks that do most of their business internationally, are concerned that the pressure on bonuses could extend to their executives, particularly if Mr Diamond decides to waive his bonus. “That would raise further questions in the minds of their shareholders about the wisdom of remaining based in Britain,” an adviser to one of the banks said. Both banks have raised the prospect of leaving the UK because of the growing regulatory burden and the new UK bank balance sheet tax which disadvantages them against foreign rivals.
Sir Philip Hampton, chairman of the state-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland, said that the Government and others had embarked on “a bit of an anti-business bandwagon”.
“Bashing people up who are actually there to help, doesn’t itself help,” he said in reference to Mr Hester, his chief executive, who waived a £1 million bonus this week after coming under huge pressure from ministers and Ed Miliband, the Labour leader.
“We knew there would be a difficult reaction ... but the scale of it took us by surprise. I think it took the Government by surprise too.”
Another senior banker said that the pressure from Downing Street to strip Fred Goodwin, the former RBS chief, of his knighthood was populist and inflamed the anti-business sentiment in the country. “There’s a bit of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde about Cameron and Osborne,” he said. “They come out with all the right language to us in private. But they can’t resist the call of the mob. Has this reduced our respect for the coalition? The answer without a shadow of a doubt is yes.”
All three party leaders have been competing to be the toughest on financial sector pay and bonuses. Mr Miliband, who used a speech in the City yesterday to call for an end to “corrosive” levels of remuneration, will force a Commons vote on “ending the bonus culture”. The vote on Tuesday is aimed at piling pressure on Mr Diamond to give up a multimillion-pound bonus, due to be announced on Friday. The overall bonus pot for Barclays’ 10,000 investment bankers is expected to be down by about 30 per cent.
Stuart Popham, the chairman of TheCityUK, a group that promotes the industry, warned against further escalation of the rhetoric. “Otherwise we put at risk the relationship between financial services and those in Parliament and more widely — a relationship that has to be improved so that we can all concentrate on growing the economy and doing our job,” he said.
A main board director of one of Britain’s biggest banks said: “In America our clients and investors are staggered at the way the UK seems hellbent on destroying one of the few industries where it competes globally.”
Another senior City figure said: “They’re lapping this up in Hong Kong [a financial centre that would love to poach more business from London]. The farther east you go, the greater the bemusement about the Government’s handling of these events.”
The financial services industry is a major wealth generator in the UK, responsible for 8.9 per cent of total output and £63 billion of total tax revenues, which is 12.1 per cent of total tax receipts. The more narrowly defined wholesale financial services market — the City in common parlance — contributes 2.8 per cent of GDP.
Disquiet has also emerged among Conservative donors. Lord Wolfson, the chief executive of Next who is also a major contributor to party funds, said that ministers should be careful about attacking individuals. “It is wrong to try to deal with it by demonising either Stephen Hester, unfairly, or with slightly more justification, Fred Goodwin,” he said. “Ultimately, business needs an environment where it believes the people running the government are going to be guided by principles and law, not political expediency.”
A recent study reported that from July 2010 to the end of June 2011, more than half of the £12.2 million handed to the Tory party’s central office came from donors linked to the City.
Mark Field, the Conservative MP for the City of London, said: “The Government is fast discovering that no amount of populist posturing will ever appease the mob. The view of many City folk I have spoken to in recent days is that the UK is at serious risk of being seen to overseas investors as far less open for business and a reliable bastion of commercial certainty than at any time since the 1980s.”
Non-banking leaders have been more supportive of the coalition, approving measures such as reducing corporation tax and reforming the tax treatment of multinationals. One said: “We still respect the coalition for their general economic policy — getting the deficit down and keeping the triple-A rating — but the trust is going. How can we know they won’t turn round and lift tax on executive pay? I don’t think Blair would have got himself into this position.”
The bank transaction tax that is to be (or may be?) introduced in France will keep banks away from France and maybe the rest of Europe will think it would be a good idea to introduce it too. That'll make us more attractive I should think. Also, I doubt there are that many vacancies for bank bosses throughout the world for any to jump ship from the UK because their bonus / salary etc package isn't good enough.
sussexjob said:
Leading bankers from around the world have accused ministers of joining an anti-business bandwagon....
- Whose money to bankers play with? Ours
- Do bankers care a fig about anything except themselves? No
- Do bankers need to get themselves elected? No
- Do politicians need to get themselves elected? Yes
- Who votes for them? Us
Ozzie Osmond said:
sussexjob said:
Leading bankers from around the world have accused ministers of joining an anti-business bandwagon....
- Whose money to bankers play with? Ours
- Do bankers care a fig about anything except themselves? No
- Do bankers need to get themselves elected? No
- Do politicians need to get themselves elected? Yes
- Who votes for them? Us
Good reason for politicians to keep the f
k out of business.mondeoman said:
Do politicians contribute massively to the UK GDP? No.
Good reason for politicians to keep the fk out of business.
Course they do. They borrow and print sGood reason for politicians to keep the f
k out of business.tloads of money and spend it on crap and then lie/undercount inflation to make it sound like growth. Thats GDP/GNP. In the words of RFK..."The Gross National Product includes air pollution and advertising for cigarettes, and ambulance to clear our highways of carnage.
It counts special locks for our doors, and jails for the people who break them. GNP includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior.
It grows with the production of napalm and missiles and nuclear warheads... And if GNP includes all this, there is much that it does not comprehend."
Whether GDP is actually a good way of measuring the economy is less certain. Personally i cant think of a worse way.
Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff