RE: The American dream...................2 Jan 2022 14:42
The head of the City broker FinnCap has said Brexit has been a boost to the Square Mile as it has allowed regulators to ditch EU red tape.
Sam Smith, chief executive of the London-listed business, said more money is going into UK growth companies than ever before and the City is working “very well”, despite warnings that it would lose business and jobs to the Continent following Britain’s break with Brussels.
“To me, Brexit has not been anything other than quite positive ... we are seeing signs that actually the regulatory regime could be changed in a positive way post-Brexit to really make this ecosystem fly,” she said.
The comments came as new research from EY found that fears of a mass exodus of City workers failed to materialise as the flow of bankers and traders moving to the EU went into reverse this year.
Hundreds of thousands of jobs were said to be at risk if the UK voted to leave. However, the exodus has been far lower than expected with fewer than 10,000 workers thought to have relocated.
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Separately, the City watchdog implemented a set of sweeping reforms of London’s listing rules in December as regulators seek to make the City more attractive to fast-growing firms.
As part of the overhaul, the Financial Conduct Authority slashed free float requirements for listed companies in a bid to lure a new generation of start-ups to the London Stock Exchange.
It also permitted firms with dual-class share structures to claim places in the leading share indices and draw on a wider pool of investors including tracker funds.
Ms Smith said: “We have had a great funding environment, there is lots of investment coming into the UK, there is money to back startups and scale up businesses. And that’s continued to come from overseas, which has gotten much better since Brexit.”
Meanwhile, in a sign that further reforms are to come, Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, recently criticised EU-era red tape in the insurance market, arguing that rules requiring insurers to hold vast sums of money in ultra-low risk assets have put policyholders at risk.
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