Oh no! London city regulators’ and politicians’ worst nightmares have come true – not only has London failed to gain a much hoped for lead over New York, but it has fallen behind Singapore in the contest to be the world’s top financial centre. At least, though, the once mighty “square mile” has not suffered the ignominy inflicted by the latest Bloomberg poll on Tokyo.
But we’ll let Bloomberg elaborate on the bad news:
New York has withstood the worst economic crisis in seven decades and remains the leading global financial center, followed by Singapore, which topped London as investors’ preferred place for doing business, according to Bloomberg Global Poll.
Twenty-nine percent of respondents in the quarterly poll of investors, traders and analysts who subscribe to the Bloomberg terminal say New York will be the best place for financial services two years from now. Singapore is chosen by 17 percent of respondents and London is the pick of 16 percent. Shanghai has 11 percent, while Tokyo, once considered a global hub, gets the nod from only 1 percent.
Of course, some are inevitably going to point fingers at the crazed intellectual with the political agenda FSA chief Lord Turner, who in August famously accused the “swollen” City of excesses that should be deflated with a Tobin-style transactions tax and said regulators should be “very, very wary of seeing the competitiveness of London as a major aim”.
Many are bound to mutter the ancient Chinese caution: be careful of what you wish for. However, reading back on Lord Turner’s interventions, we can’t help wonder whether the FSA chairman is reading the Bloomberg poll results with a smile on his face. Regardless, we can guess that his Singaporean counterparts are definitely having a good day.
Related links:
Bankers rebuke Turner for going beyond remit – FT
Philip Stephens: Cut the banks (and bonuses) down to size – FT
Robert Shrimsley: Social usefulness and banking bosh – FT