DHN Online Panel Discussion – The City in a post-brexit world

Devonshire House were delighted to work with the City United Project and The Right Honourable The Lord Lamont of Lerwick PC to host an important online discussion on the 13.04.21.

The event was supported by an experienced, knowledgeable and strong-minded Panel , all of whom have a lot to say about the Financial Services Industry in London and elsewhere in the UK. – and what it ought to be doing next to be seen as the leading global centre for Financial Services.

Please watch the recording below.

About the Chairman and speakers:-

The Rt Hon The Lord Lamont of Lerwick PC was a Cabinet Minister under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and a member of the House of Commons for 25 years. From 1990 to 1993, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer at a particularly difficult time that included Britain’s exit from the ERM.  Many economists have attributed the economic stability and growth enjoyed by Britain in the ‘90s and thereafter to the tough policies introduced by him. Norman Lamont was Britain’s Chief Negotiator at the Maastricht Treaty and secured Britain’s non-participation in the euro, of which he remains a strong opponent and critic. As well as being a working Peer, he is a director of a number of financial companies. He was created a life peer in 1998.

Professor Daniel Hodson, Founder and Chairman of City United Project.  Daniel Hodson’s early career spanned both marketing and financial roles.  He became Deputy CEO of Nationwide Building Society in 1989 and in 1993 was appointed CEO of LIFFE plc, a post he held until 1998.  Daniel has extensive experience as non-executive director of The Post Office, Rolfe and Nolan plc, Independent Insurance Group and the London Clearing House plc.  He is a non-executive director of SVM Global plc and Chairman of BPLGlobal (Holdings) Ltd.  He is also a former Master of the Mercers Company and Chairman of the Lokahi Foundation.

Dr Gerard Lyons is one of the UK’s leading economists.  His main focus is as chief economic strategist and shareholder at the challenger wealth manager Netwealth.  He is a Board Member of Bank of China (UK); a non-executive director of BGC (Europe); a senior fellow at Policy Exchange think-tank; and sits on the advisory boards of Warwick Business School and of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the LSE and Imperial College.  During Boris Johnson’s second term as London Mayor, Gerard was his economic advisor and championed the London Living Wage and London’s global position.

Andy Ross is CEO of CurveGlobal Limited which is an interest rate derivatives venture launched in 2015 by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and a number of leading dealer banks: Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Société Générale, together with the Chicago Board Options Exchange.  Their aim is to develop a competitive offering via London Stock Exchange plc’s derivatives market which has Recognised Investment Exchange status in the interest rate futures market, delivering lower transaction costs, and capital efficiencies through LCH.Clearnet – SwapClear’s recently announced interest rate portfolio margining solution.  Prior to this Andy was European Head of OTC clearing, and Managing Director of Morgan Stanley’s European OTC clearing product in Europe.

Tom Bohills is the Founder of Chronos Law, a boutique technology law firm located in London.  In 2020 he won The Law Society’s ‘Sole Practitioner of the year’ award, after which he set up Chronos Law.  Tom is an experienced IP/IT lawyer who trained and qualified at one of the world’s top law firms and has since headed the legal department of two multi-award winning UK FinTech companies.  Chronos was founded to service the booming financial and regulatory tech sector in London.  Its particular focus is on young to medium maturity technology companies in high growth mode.  Its client base spans the full breadth of the UK (and European) Fintech scene, from fixed income to money markets through to one of the industry’s biggest data providers.  Its long term anchor clients include Fintechs involved in AI driven wealth management, Open Banking and Regtech

The vision of the City United Project is a global City and UK financial services industry, serving the world and supported by a fair and competitive regulatory and taxation framework and the highest skills possible. “New opportunities are opening up to secure the City’s global leadership in regulation and product development,.” says Daniel Hodson.

Former EU Financial Services Brussels Commissioner, Lord Jonathan Hill, says that it is not in Brussels’ interests to allow London to continue to dominate the European Financial Market in the way it did before Brexit, inferring that “equivalence” could be now little more than a talking shop. However, he points to Financial Services work moving to Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, Paris and Dublin will probably mean that no one city will emerge as the outright EU Centre for financial services -and this should work to the UK’s advantage.

The role of financial services in generating employment in the City and regionally (including in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) is more important than ever and can strengthen the Union.

More info at www.cityunitedproject.com and latest news HERE

Its Political Advisory Board includes

• Sir Bernard Jenkin MP (Chairman)
• The Rt Hon David Jones MP
• The Rt Hon The Lord Lamont of Lerwick PC
• The Rt Hon The Lord Hannan of Kingsclere
• Anne Marie Morris MP

Selection of messages from the Chat & Q&A

• Given a valueless Equivalence with the EU, does that open the door to increasing opportunities with Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong?
• The FT reported yesterday that “A cross-party group of MPs and several business figures have set up an independent commission to scrutinise and improve the UK’s trade deals with the EU and the rest of the world” Could/should this be beneficial for the City and Financial Services sector and address the concerns and opportunities expressed this evening?
• Dr Robert Barnes from the LSEG is the pre-eminent ‘humble market- practitioner’
• If EU is playing politics with equivalence then why doesn’t the City respond by threatening to price EU sovereign bonds/paper at its proper risk profile recognizing that no EU country can unilaterally print money?
• 1) To what extent do you expect the EU to use extra-territorial provisions to repatriate euro denominated financial services activity to EU domiciled infrastructure? 2) To the extent the EU employs a 30-day unilateral notice period with its equivalence provisions, what reliance should be placed on it? 3) Should the UK participants actively develop offshore markets for Euro denominated products knowing it to be inflammatory to EUCOM/ESMA? 4) Global Institutions appear reticent to promote the UK as a place for financial services for fear of offending the EU. How do we tackle that problem?
• As part of Brexit, UK banks undertook diligence as to where it should set up a subsidiary in EU. It transpired that “Equivalence” is somewhat of a fiction. Pretty much every country, trying to attract investment, suddenly had local licences that were needed to sell FS in their country. I don’t believe any bank got a clean legal opinion.

Q&A