The City of London’s Unusual Street Names | #shorts

This man explains.

Pay Us More to Boost the City of London, Say FTSE Chiefs

THE TELEGRAPH: Square Mile bosses call for more government action to boost pension funds’ investing

Julia Hoggett, chief executive of London Stock Exchange, called for more to be done to address the pay gap between UK and US execs CREDIT: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg
Low executive pay is the biggest obstacle to boosting the City of London, FTSE bosses have said.

A new survey of 150 directors at London-listed companies found that lower pay for City chiefs compared to rival financial centres was holding back the London Stock Exchange (LSE) as a listing venue.
The research, carried out by investment bank Numis, adds to growing complaints in the Square Mile that Britain is being held back by a campaign against high pay.

Julia Hoggett, chief executive of the LSE, has said a pay disparity between UK chief executives versus their US counterparts has “not received enough attention” and called for a level playing field to stem an exodus of companies.

Chief executives of S&P 500 companies in the US make on average $10m more than FTSE 100 counterparts, according to data from Equilar and Deloitte published earlier this year. » | Simon Foy | Tuesday, July 25, 2023

One’s heart bleeds for these hard-done-by executives. How dare the system short-change them like that? – © Mark Alexander

City Faces Fresh Post-Brexit Blow as EU Moves to Restrict Certain Trades

THE GUARDIAN: Battle focuses on what EU sees as bloc’s over-reliance on London’s clearing houses handling euro-denominated derivatives

The City of London faces another post-Brexit blow to its dominance after the EU moved to require firms to settle more financial-risk reducing trades within the bloc.

The plan centres on trades in securities known as derivatives, and on financial market clearing houses, the intermediaries that enable the transfer of funds to sellers and financial products to buyers. Handling trillions of transactions each year, they are deemed an essential part of financial market plumbing that reduces risk.

Since Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016, the subject has become a battleground, as Brussels seeks to end what it sees as an over-reliance of European firms on London for euro-denominated derivatives trades. » | Jennifer Rankin in Brussels | Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Will the City Lose Its Euro Clearing Business?

Oct 31, 2022 | In this latest Federal Trust video, the financial analyst Graham Bishop and the Chairman of the Trust, John Stevens, discuss the likelihood and the significance of the City of London losing its approximately €100 trillion Euro derivatives clearing business to the Eurozone by 2025. Among other implications, the loss of its status as the main Euro clearing centre might also put in jeopardy its role as the leading global US Dollar hub.

Guest:
Graham Bishop is an independent consultant on European political, financial, economic and budgetary integration as well as the founder of grahambishop.com. He is also a member of the Council of the Federal Trust and, he says, a 'dedicated Europhile'. He has been a fixture in the City since 1972, beginning with Phillips & Drew and ending with Citi where he was a European bond analyst. Adviser to the Co-Chief Executives in Europe on European Financial Affairs.

No 10 Pressured Me to Drop Anti-money Laundering Measures, Says Ex-minister

THE GUARDIAN: UK ‘laughing stock’ for failure to stem dirty money, says Lord Faulks QC, who was told to drop register by Theresa May’s No 10

A former Conservative minister, once at the heart of efforts to clamp down on money laundering in London, has revealed that during Theresa May’s premiership, No 10 “leant on him” when he tabled amendments to introduce a public register of overseas property owners.

Lord Faulks said he had first tried to put the register into the criminal finances bill in 2017 and then again into a government bill on money laundering in 2018. He had described the overseas ownership of dirty money in London as an obscenity.

Faulks, a distinguished barrister and now an independent peer, told the Guardian he was rung by Downing Street during May’s tenure and told to go to a meeting where he met civil servants from four government departments including the Foreign Office, business officials and the Home Office. They told him to drop the amendments – for which he had a voting majority in the Lords – because they assured him Whitehall had the issue in hand.

He told the Guardian: “I was obviously misled because nothing has subsequently happened. I can only think a deluded desire to protect the City of London has led to all these delays.

“It is a real irony that our reputation for protecting the rule of law is one of the things that attracts people who have very little regard for the rule of law themselves and come from countries which ignore it almost altogether. » | Patrick Wintour, Diplomatic editor | Tuesday, February 15, 2022

The City of London Is Hiding the World’s Stolen Money

Toby Melville/Reuters
OPINION: GUEST ESSAY
THE NEW YORK TIMES: In 1969, two years after the Cayman Islands, a British territory, passed its first law to allow secretive offshore trusts, an official government report struck an ominous note. A tide of glossy propositions from private developers, it warned, was washing through the islands. Cayman was fast becoming a state captured by shady finance.

Those were the pungent beginnings of a modern system brought to light by the Pandora Papers, an enormous data leak coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The papers exposed a smorgasbord of secretive and questionable financial dealings by more than 330 politicians and public officials from over 90 countries and territories — and over 130 billionaires from Russia, the United States and elsewhere. On display was a dizzying array of chicanery and wealth hoarding, often by the very people who should crack down on it.

The revelations, published on Oct. 3, are global in scope. But if there is one country at the system’s heart, it is Britain. Taken together with its partly controlled territories overseas, Britain is instrumental in the worldwide concealment of cash and assets. It is, as a member of the ruling Conservative Party said last week, “the money laundering capital of the world.” And the City of London, its gilded financial center, is at the system’s core. For Britain, whose bloated financial sector exacerbates widespread economic problems, that’s bad enough. For the world, at the mercy of an economic system rigged for the rich, it’s even worse. » | Nicholas Shaxson | Monday, October 11, 2021

Up to 100,000 UK Jobs At Risk as Merkel and Juncker Ally Warns on Euro Clearing

THE GUARDIAN: EU lawmaker Manfred Weber says sector must relocate out of City of London after Brexit

The future of an estimated 100,000 jobs has been plunged into doubt after a close political ally of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, warned that a prized sector in the City of London must relocate to EU soil after Brexit.

Manfred Weber, the leader of the largest political group in the European parliament, to which both the German chancellor and the commission president belong, told reporters that euro-denominated clearing could no longer be undertaken in the City when the UK leaves the EU.

“EU citizens decide on their own money,” Weber said during a press conference in Strasbourg on Tuesday. “When the UK is leaving the European Union it is not thinkable that at the end the whole euro business is managed in London. This is an external place, this is not an EU place any more. The euro business should be managed on EU soil.” Read on and comment » | Daniel Boffey | Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Ukraine Crisis: I'm Prepared to Hit City to Punish Putin, Says David Cameron

David Cameron and Angela Merkel meet ahead of a European
leaders emergency summit on Ukraine

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Russians could be hit with asset freezes and travel bans "within days", Prime Minister says, even if it harms the City and British industries

Sanctions will be imposed on Russia within days unless it loosens its grip on the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, David Cameron announced today.

The City of London and the defence industry could suffer as a result Britain has learnt from history that it must “stand up to aggression” and cannot stand by “when nations are trampled over”, the Prime Minister said.

Britain, the EU and the US are drawing up a list of Russian officials who will see their off-shore bank accounts frozen and banned from travelling to the West unless it steps back from annexing the Crimean peninsula. Defence co-operation is also under review, with a presumption that arms contracts will be scrapped.

Mr Cameron, speaking after talks in Hanover with German President Angela Merkel, said he would “ratchet up the pressure” on Vladimir Putin if he attempts to “legitimise” a Russian-backed referendum on Crimea leaving Ukraine on Sunday.

Downing Street said that any sanctions would be aimed at individuals but sources said that this would be unlikely to mean President Putin could be targeted. » | Matthew Holehouse, Political Correspondent | Monday, March 10, 2014

UK Courts Islamic Cash with Sharia-compliant Bonds

Britain is to become the first Western country to issue Islamic bonds.

Lord Browne Raises Questions Over City 'Homophobia’

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Lord Browne, the former chief executive of BP, has raised the spectre of homophobia in the City and questioned why there are no openly homosexual chief executives running Britain’s biggest companies.

The industrialist, who resigned from the oil giant in 2007 after lying in court to cover up circumstances linked to his sexuality, believes that homosexual men and women may not be being chosen for top jobs at FTSE 100 companies because of their sexuality.

Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, Lord Browne, who is now openly homosexual, said that he believes gay rights should be as high on the agenda as other issues such as gender and race.

His comments, in the wake of the recent campaign to ensure fair representation of women in senior board roles, shine a light on an issue that is rarely discussed in the upper echelons of Britain’s leading companies.

Asked if homophobia exists in the City of London, Lord Browne said: “There appear to be no out gay chief executive officers in the top companies listed on the FTSE.

“This cannot be for want of talent. That leaves two explanations: either LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] candidates are self-selecting away from these positions, or they are not being selected for them.” » | James Quinn, Deputy Sunday Business Editor | Sunday, November 11, 2012

City Boys' Shame after Rugby Email Goes Viral
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: For four young City high-fliers, the adage "what goes on tour, stays on tour" has unravelled after a private email with their "tour rules" went viral.

In the indiscrete memo, the former public schoolboys - who called their group “G4” - drew up 13 rules for their upcoming trip to the Dubai 7s rugby tournament in March that stated “cheating is allowed” along with compulsory chants about “how rich we are”.

The instructions also included “mentioning parents’ salaries once a day” as well as referring to obscene sexual acts.

The men, who all work for international corporations, included brief profiles about one another in the email that was sent to employees at global companies including Clifford Chance and Barclays Wealth.

Their antics could prove damaging to their careers after they included details of their jobs and employers in a mock “CV”, which made its way around the world.

A source told the Daily Telegraph: “Someone forwarded it on maliciously to so many people. It was just a joke for a holiday.

“It is getting so out of hand. This could ruin their careers. Someone just forwarded it on because they thought it was funny.” » | Donna Bowater and Anna White | Thursday, February 09, 2012

Bankers Ready to Sue If Bonuses Too Small

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A growing number of bankers are considering suing their employer if they do not get the bonus they think they deserve this year, according to City employment lawyers.

British banks should brace themselves for claims from "disgruntled" bankers who will not roll over and accept lower bonuses than usual despite the huge public and shareholder backlash against out-of-control pay, legal experts have warned.

One claim for £1.5m is understood to have already made its way into the system last year, after a banker believed their 2011 bonus was too low.

The case is believed to have been rejected before it got to court, with lawyers acting for the bank branding the claim "whimsical".

Judges are also said to be unsympathetic towards bankers' claims that their bonuses are too small in the current climate.

However, City lawyers said an increasing number of bankers were building cases in preparation of lower bonus payouts and were prepared to fight it out at court. Read on and comment » | Louisa Peacock, Jobs Editor | Monday, January 02, 2012

My comment:

I see no difference between the top-feeders and the bottom-feeders. They are all a scourge to a decent society. Let the bastards sue! Incarcerate all those that can be incarcerated. They got us into this mess; they should pay the price. – © Mark

This comment also appears here

Revealed: How City Fees Are Eating Into Our Pensions

THE GUARDIAN: Traders' hidden charges leaving pensioners and savers worse off, Treasury warned

Highly paid City traders are depriving pensioners and savers of thousands of pounds through high management fees that are often hidden, according to leaked advice provided by consultants to the Treasury. The charges are spreading and are so steep that savers may find they get less back in retirement than they invested in savingsaccounts and pensions over their lifetimes.

If the size of the charges were to become widely known, the UK's "fragile savings culture may be permanently damaged", according to the warning presented to the Treasury last month.

The damning findings come at a time of growing anxiety that millions of Britons will not have enough money for their old age. They will also raise new questions about the prime minister's decision to veto a new EU treaty over his demands for greater protection for the City.

David Cameron has insisted that the financial sector is a vital national interest, yet the consultants brought into the Treasury claimed that the often unnecessary charges built up by traders are damaging potential economic growth.

A source who has seen the presentation told the Observer that the conclusion was fund managers had "lost sight" of their customers and that the government needed to act. The presentation suggested that the country's pensions black hole – unfunded public and private pension commitments – could be wiped out over time if costs could be reduced, a source said.

"They are so high that the industry is actually destroying value for the UK investor at least as fast as the stock market can create it," the source said. "The government's message is that you have to save for your retirement, but with the amount you will make it hardly makes it worthwhile if these costs are being taken out. And the highest cost of all are personnel costs, wages and bonuses." » | Daniel Boffey, policy editor | Saturday, December 17, 2011

Church of England 'Must Curb Its Attacks on the City'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Church of England must resist igniting a 1980s-style war of words with the Government over its attacks on the City, according to a senior banker and church official.

Ken Costa, a former bank chairman and head of a newly appointed Church committee charged with rebuilding links with the financial sector, has warned against a repeat of the bitter row that broke out after the publication of the clergy's landmark Faith in the City report 25 years ago.

At the time, the report provoked fury among senior Conservatives by levelling some of the blame for economic and spiritual decline at the door of the Thatcher administration.

Mr Costa, the chairman of the St Paul's Initiative, established by the Church to open up a debate on ethical capitalism, said the clergy's response to the ongoing protests outside St Paul's Cathedral must not turn into a "reheated Faith in the City".

In his first public comments since his appointment, Mr Costa insisted that a flourishing banking sector was "essential to any successful economy" and that financial incentives are "both valid and effective".

He also said that stiffer regulation of financial services was not necessarily the solution to the global economic crisis, saying, "you cannot regulate into existence a culture of honesty, integrity, truthfulness and responsibility". » | Graeme Paton | Monday, November 07, 2011

Ken Costa, a one-time Marxist turned City banker, seems to be saying that the Church should do and say nothing. So he wants the Church to shut up to allow the banksters to continue their theft and corruption, eh? I say that if the Church wants to be taken seriously, it should step up its attack on these fraudsters, not shut up.

In my opinion, it is time for bankers to have a code of ethics, just as doctors have in the Hippocratic Oath. Then, if they are found to be engaging in foul practice, they can have their licence to work in the banking sector taken away from them. – © Mark

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Les «indignés» campent à la City

LE FIGARO: Quelques centaines de manifestants se sont installés à côté de la Bourse de Londres.

La nuit a été courte. Vent pinçant, carillon des cloches de Saint-Paul et arrivée des caméras dès l'aube ne facilitent certes pas le repos. Mais Bryn Phillips et Laura May, 28 et 30 ans, assis dans leur petite tente pliable, n'ont aucune intention de se laisser décourager. «On reste jusqu'à ce que le gouvernement démissionne», annonce Bryn, pianiste de son état.

Ils sont quelques centaines à camper ici depuis une manifestation, samedi, relayant le mouvement Occupy Wall Street de New York, sous une large bannière qui annonce : «Le capitalisme, c'est la crise.» Ils voulaient au départ s'installer devant la Bourse de Londres mais le propriétaire de l'esplanade privée où se situe son siège en a fait bloquer l'accès par la police. Les campeurs se sont donc réfugiés à deux pas, à l'ombre de la cathédrale Saint-Paul, avec le soutien inattendu du révérend Giles Fraser, qui a demandé aux forces de l'ordre de les laisser faire. » | Par Florentin Collomp | Correspondant à Londres | lundi 17 octobre 2011

FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: Proteste gegen Banken – Merkel: „Berechtigtes Gerechtigkeitsverlangen“ – Bundeskanzlerin Merkel versteht, warum „die Menschen auf die Straße gehen“. Darin drücke sich eine tiefe Sorge aus „und auch ein berechtigtes Gerechtigkeitsverlangen der Menschen.“ Es sei nötig, der Finanzwelt „Zügel anzulegen“.» | Quelle: Reuters, dpa | Montag 17. Oktober 2011

Occupy London – Live

Watch live streaming video from occupylondon2 at livestream.com

MAIL ONLINE: Day of 'Global Revolution' comes to London as thousands of demonstrators take over the City » | Lee Moran | Saturday, October 15, 2011

Protesters Hit the City of London

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Protesters descended on the City of London today as part of worldwide demonstrations against corporate greed and cutbacks.

Inspired by America's "Occupy Wall Street" and Spain's "Indignants", people took to the streets in Sydney, Hong Kong and Tokyo in the opening hours of the unprecedented global outcry.

Anger over unemployment and opposition to the financial elite hung over the protests in 951 cities in 82 countries, which coincided with a Paris meeting of G20 financial powers pre-occupied by the eurozone debt crisis.

But the demands and the sense of urgency among the activists varied depending on the city.

In London, more than 1,000 protesters gathered outside St Paul's Cathedral and struggled against police officers on horseback to enter Paternoster Square, the home of the London Stock Exchange.

Speaking at the protest, political campaigner Peter Tatchell proposed a one-off 20pc emergency tax on the net wealth of the richest 10pc of the UK population, as well as the introduction of a “Tobin Tax” on financial transactions.

"The richest 10pc of the UK population have a combined personal wealth of £4 million, million. A one-off 20pc tax on those people would raise £800 billion," he said.
"Those people can afford it, they'd feel no pain, they're so fabulously wealthy.

"With that sum of money you could pay off the entire government deficit. No need for any public spending cuts." Read on and comment » | Matthew Sparkes | Saturday, October 15, 2011

Occupy Wall Street Protests Come to London

THE GUARDIAN: The Occupy London Stock Exchange collective said a Facebook page on the protest had attracted more than 9,000 followers

Protests against the global financial system which have seen huge demonstrations in New York's Wall Street will spread to the City ofLondon this weekend.

A number of campaign organisations, including direct action group UK Uncut, say they will support an occupation of the heart of the capital's financial centre on Saturday as part of a "global movement for real democracy" to highlight social and economic injustice.

The Occupy London Stock Exchange collective said a Facebook page on the protest had attracted more than 9,000 followers, with more than 3,500 confirmed attendees.

Laura Taylor, a supporter of the so-called OccupyLSX, said: "Why are we paying for a crisis the banks caused? More than a million people have lost their jobs and tens of thousands of homes have been repossessed, while small businesses are struggling to survive.

"Yet bankers continue to make billions in profit and pay themselves enormous bonuses, even after we bailed them out with £850bn." » | Press Association | Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Revealed: 50% of Tory Funds Come from City
THE GUARDIAN: Donations from the financial sector have risen steeply since David Cameron became leader of the Conservative party

Financiers in the City of London provided more than 50% of the funding for the Tories last year, new research revealed last night, prompting claims that the party is in thrall to the banks.

A study by the Bureau for Investigative Journalism has found that the City accounted for £11.4m of Tory funding – 50.79% of its total haul – in 2010, a general election year. This compared with £2.7m, or 25% of its funding, in 2005, when David Cameron became party leader.

The research also shows that nearly 60 donors gave more than £50,000 to the Tories last year, entitling each of them to a face-to-face meeting with leading members of the party up to and including Cameron.

The study shows the impact that Michael Spencer has had on party funding. He was appointed by Cameron as Tory treasurer in an attempt to reduce the influence of Lord Ashcroft, the party's former deputy chairman. Spencer was asked by Cameron to increase the number of relatively small donations of £50,000 to curb the influence of large donors such as Ashcroft, and for these smaller donations the City was place to look.

But there were still big City donations last year. David "Spotty" Rowland gave more than £4m. Stanley Fink, a hedge fund manager who was appointed the Tory treasurer last year in succession to Spencer, gave £1.9m while George Magan gave £485,000. Magan was also given a peerage.

The research comes at an awkward time for the coalition. Yesterday, George Osborne put an extra £800m tax on bank balance sheets for this year, increasing the bank levy from £1.7bn to £2.5bn. The move was immediately denounced by unions as being politically motivated, coming as it did just hours before Osborne's first encounter with the new shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, in the Commons. >>> Nicholas Watt and Jill Treanor | Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Little wonder that David Cameron has no stomach to tackle the absurd and undeserved bonuses in the City! – © Mark

London's Neediest Curse City Bonuses