TheCityUK Spring Debate: UK Regulation, Global Impact?

Over 200 people attended our inaugural Spring Debate hosted on Tuesday 29 March 2011. The discussion centred on the need to re-establish a mutually-beneficial relationship between the industry and its users, while also seeking measured regulation that restores trust but also allows financial services to fulfil their role as a primary engine of economic growth.

The seminar in London's Merchant Taylors Hall, gathered senior figures from Government, the full breadth of financial and professional services sectors and industry and consumer bodies, who expressed a diverse range of views on the evolving financial services landscape, key regulatory initiatives and their potential impact on the international competitiveness of the United Kingdom as a global financial services centre.

Mark Hoban MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury (pictured below), said:

"We will not achieve our full potential without a strong and stable financial system to act as the driving force behind economic growth. One that supports consumers and businesses up and down the country. And is a source of wealth and prosperity in its own right - not just here in the City, or in Canary Wharf, or in the West End, but in every town and city across our country, employing around one million people across the nation."

To read the full speech by Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban MP, follow this link.

Mark Hoban MP

Stuart Popham, Chairman of TheCityUK, said: "As the Government puts in place the framework to underwrite its  stated intention to make the UK the best place to start, finance and run a business, the financial and professional services industry is engaged in a positive discussion about the regulation required to protect the UK's standing as a premier international financial services centre. It's essential that we calibrate policy tools to leave space for the innovation and calculated risk-taking which will spur economic growth, while also achieving the all-important balance with assuring investor and consumer confidence in the sector. We recognise that restoring trust is critical at a time when people and businesses are most in need of the services the range of sector players offer, from lending to insurance to safeguarding the future through initiatives such as the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST)."

Further speakers at the event included Sir Andrew Cahn, ex-CEO UKTI and Sir Win Bischoff, Chairman of Lloyds Banking Group. Panel discussions were chaired by Clare Spottiswoode, Commissioner of the Independent Commission on Banking; Stuart Fraser, Chairman of the Policy & Resources Committee, City of London Corporation; and Anthony Hilton, Financial Editor of the Evening Standard. Contributors on the panels included Peter Sands, Group CEO of Standard Chartered, Dominic Lindley, Principal Policy Advisor of Which?; Gary Shaughnessy, Managing Director of Fidelity International; Bill Mills, CEO EMEA, Citi.