City of London's future: Top politician makes promises but delivers confusion
UK Chancellor wants more risk-taking in finance sector but offers weak solutions. Her Mansion House speech shows gap between big talk and real actions in fixing over-regulated British banking system
Rachel Reeves made quite a turn-around at her Mansion House talk this week - though not quite reaching Truss-like levels. The Chancellor spoke about growth plans and less-strict rules‚ which is quite different from her usual style
In mid-Nov 24‚ she went on about how we need to take more risks and cut down red-tape (which has been a real pain since the 08 crisis). The finance world has gotten too comfy behind its wall of rules; theres no doubt about that
Her budget from last month didnt help much - it hit companies with new taxes and gave a not-so-great view of UK business. The speech was meant to fix things but: hereʼs what she actually did; sent some letters to regulators and promised another study for 25
The current system is super-heavy with rules: lots of paperwork needed‚ too many watching agencies and way-too-big safety reserves for banks. Even after Brexit we didnt really change much - just copied most EU rules without thinking
The UK has been regulating for risk but not regulating for growth
Across the ocean Trumpʼs team is getting ready to make real changes - theyʼre talking about letting banks lend more and making deals easier. Wall Street likes it but Londonʼs market didnt even notice Reeves speech
Here are some things that could actually work:
* Drop share trading taxes
* Make crypto-friendly laws
* Cut down number of regulators
* Fix rich foreigners tax rules
But Reeves just talks about change while keeping tight control - its all just empty words and the City keeps getting slower
