Bischoff joins City talkshop
Chancellor Alistair Darling is to chair a working group looking at competitiveness in Britain which will include Citigroup chairman Sir Win Bischoff.
The group will meet once a month and will analyse matters affecting the London financial services industry such as the effects of the subprime mortgage meltdown in America which triggered the credit crunch, and the growth of emerging financial centres including Dubai and Shanghai.
Bischoff is the latest high-profile name to be linked to the competitiveness group whose other 17 members include Dame Clara Furse, the chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, Lord Levene, Lloyd’s of London chairman, Richard Lambert, the director-general of employers’ group the CBI, and Stuart Fraser, chairman of the City’s policy and resources committee. Other members include the bosses of Britain’s biggest banks, insurance and professional services firms.
Darling is in the process of setting up five taskforces that will examine everything from capital raising to tax, in an attempt to repair strained relations with the City.
Proposals to change the rules over the taxation of foreign profits and a string of humiliating U-turns on capital gains tax and non-domiciled residents in the last few months has angered many in the City.
The groups will suggest ways in which London can retain its status as the premier international financial centre. They will report back to the High-level Group, which was established by Prime Minister Gordon Brown two years ago. Another taskforce will scrutinise capital raising in Britain in the wake of a number of troubled rights issues.
It will be co-chaired by City Minister Kitty Ussher and Hector Sants, the head of the FSA.