Natwest chairman Sir Howard Davies on the ‘pandexit’ to China, levelling-up and crypto
Sir Howard Davies is as near as the UK gets to the continental ideal of a polymath who is equally at home in the worlds of arts, industry, finance and politics.
While currently serving as the chairman of banking giant Natwest, he is a former director of the LSE, a professor at Sciences Po in Paris, the first charman of the FSA, a former deputy governer of the Bank of England and a former director-general of the CBI.
In this discussion, moderated by Andrew Hilton, director of the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (CSFI), Sir Howard covers his thoughts on what central banks and Treasuries need to do as we emerge from the pandemic, his concerns about the build-up of risk outside the formal banking sector, the problems the government faces in ‘levelling-up’ at a time of widening economic and social disparities, and the concerns that we should – and should not – have about China.
Sir Howard ends with a plea that politicians remember that the UK – more than most major countries – depends on ‘the kindness of strangers’ for its continued success.