The city unleashed: Will chancellor's reforms to the financial sector roar or backfire?

ITV News

6 days ago

Rules matter. Regulation and deregulation can both lead to profound change.
On October 27 1986, a radical shift in financial regulation transformed the City of London. The 'Big Bang' introduced electronic trading and opened the doors to foreign banks, turning London into a global financial powerhouse.
It made the city roar, boosted the economy, created thousands of high-paying jobs and swelled the Treasury's coffers. But the direct benefits weren't felt much beyond London and the South East.
On Tuesday, the chancellor hopes to make some noise of her own.
In her Mansion House speech, Rachel Reeves will unveil what she calls the 'Leeds Reforms' - a sweeping attempt to cut red tape and loosen the restraints she believes are holding back bank lending, business investment and economic growth.
She will urge greater risk in the pursuit of public gain, promising a 'ripple effect that will drive investment in all sectors of our economy and put pounds in the pockets of working people.'
Among the changes:
A government-backed mortgage guarantee scheme to encourage lenders to take more risk.
A push to get savers into stocks, shifting money from savings accounts to equity markets.
A wing-clipping for the Financial Ombudsman Service, reined in after years of complaints from firms that it has acted like a 'quasi-regulator'.
A scaling back of the Senior Managers Regime (SMR) - the post-crisis framework that holds banking executives personally accountable for misconduct.
The SMR was designed by Andrew Bailey when he led the Financial Conduct Authority. Today, he runs the Bank of England.
By convenient coincidence, the Bank has today announced its own reforms - billed as a package to maintain financial stability and support growth.
Key among them: a delay. Banks will get an extra year - until January 1 2028 - to comply with key parts of Basel 3.1, a global rulebook intended to prevent future financial crises by forcing banks to hold more capital against risky assets.
Smaller lenders will face a lighter regulatory load, making it easier, in theory at least, for them to grow and lend more, especially mortgages.
The Bank also plans to find ways to smooth the path for younger banks like Starling and Metro to compete in the mortgage market.
And the bar will be raised for which banks must draw up a 'resolution plan' - the detailed blueprint for how, in case of emergency, a bank can be wound down or rescued without hitting taxpayers. The new threshold rises from £15–25 billion in assets to £25–40 billion.
The Bank of England says the timing of the announcement reflects a shared ambition to boost growth. Others may see the choreography as questionable, given the central bank's independence.
City firms have long lobbied for looser rules and will welcome much of this.
But critics will worry that the hard lessons of 2008, when reckless risk-taking in the banking sector triggered a global crisis, are being forgotten.
Sir John Vickers chaired the Independent Commission on Banking and helped design the post-crisis rules aimed at making banks safer.
He cautions not to forget the lessons of the past.
'Regulatory simplification is fine so long as the basics - including plenty of equity capital - are sound,' Vickers told ITV News. '[Banks] are sounder than they used to be, but in my view not sound enough. And on most reckonings, risk has gone up lately.'
As for the 'ripple' - or trickle-down - effects of these reforms, it's worth remembering: the benefits of Big Bang struggle to reach far beyond the Square Mile.
The stakes are high. Britain is in the grip of the longest economic stagnation since the 1930s. The public finances don't add up. And the chancellor's self-declared 'iron grip' on tax and spending looks flimsy.
Whether looser rules can deliver stronger growth or simply repeat old mistakes remains to be seen.