StanChart: UK encouraging shift of money to Asia by goldplating
THE HEAD of Standard Chartered’s European bank has warned that the UK is accelerating the shift of economic power from west to east by goldplating bank regulations.
Richard Holmes, head of StanChart’s European business, told City A.M. that Britain’s approach could cause a “creep” of investment away from London. “What’s going on here is forcing people to reassess whether [London’s] advantages are now going to be outweighed by the cost of doing business,” he said.
“You might say, incrementally where do I invest the next incremental dollar in my banking business. You might not see the moving vans drawing up and people exiting London wholesale but you might see this creep that incremental investment isn’t coming here and that’s more difficult to spot.”
He pinpointed the bank levy, the UK’s beefing up of new EU capital rules, known as CRD 4, and the Vickers Commission’s wholesale-retail banking split, which he called “inefficient”, as big headaches.
“There’s clearly an economic shift going on from the west to the east,” he added. “A shift in financial services will follow that. What’s going on now here is pushing financial services to move ahead of the shift. That’s a bad thing for London and a bad thing for Europe.”
StanChart is seen as a top candidate to be the first big bank to quit London due to regulations.