EU steps up assault on City

[BrilloPad]

errr excuse me...the City hasn't generated any GDP at all over the last 10 years, it just took everyone's savings and blew it all on wild parties, sex joints and cocaine, and left us all with a huge tax bill.

Yes : but thanks for a great time.

The rich have been doing it to the poor since time began : even Jesus said "there will be poor always".

[pzz76077]

If this goes ahead somewhere like Dubai or Qatar will quickly become the new world financial centre. They already have most of the infrastructure and it would be a simple task for financial companies to 'move' their headquarters to a new jurisdiction. Much like ICT's in reverse (skilled folk moving east, not cheap folk moving west).

PZZ

[HairyArsedBloke]

errr excuse me...the City hasn't generated any GDP at all over the last 10 years, it just took everyone's savings and blew it all on wild parties, sex joints and cocaine, and left us all with a huge tax bill.

So?

[DimPrawn]

errr excuse me...the City hasn't generated any GDP at all over the last 10 years, it just took everyone's savings and blew it all on wild parties, sex joints and cocaine, and left us all with a huge tax bill.

Well you weren't enjoying the money, so they stepped in for you.

Spend your money now, before the government and City do it for you!

[BlasterBates]

errr excuse me...the City hasn't generated any GDP at all over the last 10 years, it just took everyone's savings and blew it all on wild parties, sex joints and cocaine, and left us all with a huge tax bill.

[Gonzo]

but on the other side this government doesn't really seem like it is going to do anything about regulation, other than insisting that they are going to do what they are supposed to have done in the past

After reading this I agree!
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1d4f6e6a-6...nclick_check=1

Darling is making some noises but kicking the action to the other side of the next election so it is someone else's problem.

[Gonzo]

but on the other side this government doesn't really seem like it is going to do anything about regulation, other than insisting that they are going to do what they are supposed to have done in the past

I disagree.

The City used to have a perfectly good regulatory regime (a few disasters such as BCCI aside, but these didn't bring the whole system down).

But this wasn't good enough for Gordon Brown who decided to replace it all with a new system where it was up to civil servants to set the framework and monitor the behaviour of City firms. Look where that has got us.

[Cyberman]

It's getting nearer to that time to withdraw from Federal Europe, dump Labour and get the economy going again under proper economic management and out of the hands of the high-taxing and corrupt socialists. Let's trade and that's all !!

[DSW]

mixed opinions on this; on the one side I hate the EU meddling, but on the other side this government doesn't really seem like it is going to do anything about regulation, other than insisting that they are going to do what they are supposed to have done in the past

If it a level playing field across europe in terms of tax havens etc then I think that would be a good thing, however I suspect it will go the same as all other European initiatives and just get bogged down in bureaucracy and squabbling

[HairyArsedBloke]

There once was a time where the EU wouldn't dare think of this and the government would leave the EU rather than allow it to happen if they did.

Now :

[BrilloPad]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...ite-Paper.html

EU steps up assault on City ahead of Treasury White Paper
The European Union is considering a voting structure for its new apparatus of financial regulation that would make it almost impossible for Britain to block measures, even if they pose a major threat to the City of London.

EU leaders agreed in June to create three supra-national bodies with a full-time staff to oversee banking, insurance, and securities. These will have binding powers to impose rules for the first time, limiting the UK's Financial Services Authority to "day-to-day" management.

It had been assumed that the three bodies would take decisions be by qualified majority voting (QMV), the standard procedure for single market issues.

However, EU sources say the Commission is mulling a simple majority system, making it far harder for the UK to mount a "blocking minority" with like-minded allies. Malta or Slovenia would have the same voting weight on financial regulation as Britain, the world's banking capital.

Mark Hoban, Shadow City Minister, said the switch to binding powers changes the game profoundly for Britain's financial services industry, which generates 7pc to 8pc of GDP.

"The City is very seriously concerned about this. At least qualified majority voting provides a checking mechanism, since we can build support from the Nordics and countries in Eastern Europe. Any move to a simple majority must be stopped," he said.

"The Government took off its eye off the ball at the G20 summit. It needs to mount a rear-guard action to defend the interests of London," he said.

Brussels has seized on the credit crisis to launch a raft of far-reaching measures that bring Britain's services industry under EU control. The regulatory blitz overshadows the Treasury's White Paper on Wednesday, and may explain why the Government is delaying the full overhaul of the industry until after the next election.

The Commission is racing to produce a draft law on the three new bodies by September, which will then go to Euro-MPs and EU ministers for approval. Sweden's EU presidency hopes to complete the process by the end of the year.

Sources say their powers will be "tightly circumscribed" to avoid intruding on the fiscal sovereignty of member states, but say the British Government has definitively accepted "the philosophy of a single rule-book".

"Whatever is done will be sound, safe, and proportionate," said one senior figure. "It would be silly to put forward proposals that damage London. We've been hearing for 10 years that EU rules will drive financial services out of Europe, yet over that time London has grown into the biggest capital market in the world."

Brussels is also advancing a directive on hedge funds and private equity that draws heavily from French law and has alarmed the City. The FSA was largely excluded from the process, even though it is the world's premier regulator of hedge funds.

City Minister Lord Myners said the draft was "woefully short-sighted", needs "major surgery", and had been rushed through by countries with no financial industry to score political points.

"The UK has more skin in the game than other European countries," he said at a breakfast with the fund lobby AIMA. Some 80pc of Europe's hedge funds are in London.

Separately, the EU is drafting banking reforms that will adopt the Spanish system of "dynamic provisioning", which makes banks build up a safety buffer during boom times.

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No doubt Gordon will save the city.