City minister sets out plan to ‘simplify accountability for regulators’ and boost competition
New City minister Bim Afolami said he is focused on “simplifying accountability for regulators” as he faces calls from City grandees to boost the Square Mile’s competitiveness.
Afolami replaced Andrew Griffith as part of Rishi Sunak’s reshuffle earlier this month.
Speaking at the Financial Times’ Global Banking Summit on Tuesday, Afolami said his priorities were “threefold”.
He pledged to “deliver on the numerous reforms to improve the state of the capital markets and to improve the competitiveness and growth of the City”, including changes to prospectus rules, investment and the wholesale markets review.
“Job two is to look at our regulatory structures and our regulatory system and think about how can this work more effectively, both in terms of growth and competitiveness,” he added.
Afolami said he would look at streamlining and simplifying financial regulation.
“There’s all sorts of mechanisms that are not brought together, not simplfied… A lot of this is actually simplyfying – not deregulating or anything like that, but simplifying what’s there,” he said.
“We just have to make sure that we make it easy for them to focus on [regulation], and not mire them in too much red tape to achieve the growth and competitiveness that we want. FCA does have an incredibly broad list of responsibilities for consumers.”
Afolami also outlined measures focused on “making it just easier to do business”, including “promoting ownership” through measurers like a possible Tell-Sid style share sale plan for Natwest – announced in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement last week.
He admitted that “London has had a tough time” this year amid a drought in big-ticket IPOs but noted that a similar trend was being felt across the world.
“What I also hear from some people is ‘actually maybe we should have stayed in London,'” he said.