London

Author(s):  
Richard Roberts

At the onset of the Global Financial Crisis in 2007 London was one of the two foremost global financial centres, along with New York. London experienced a 12 per cent fall in wholesale financial services jobs in 2008–9, but a recovery got underway in 2010 and London’s wholesale financial services sector staged a wavering advance. But now there were new challenges, in particular the avalanche of financial regulation coming from the UK, the EU, the US and the G20. Fintech engendered new uncertainties. The impact of Brexit was uncertain, but mostly expected to be negative, at least in the short-term. Furthermore, there was growing competition from Asian and other financial centres. Nevertheless, London remained pre-eminent as one of the two largest global concentrations of wholesale financial services activity and at the top of the Global Financial Centres Index.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
LINDSEY APPLEYARD ◽  
CARL PACKMAN ◽  
JORDON LAZELL ◽  
HUSSAN ASLAM

Abstract The financialization of everyday life has received considerable attention since the 2008 global financial crisis. Financialization is thought to have created active financial subjects through the ability to participate in mainstream financial services. While the lived experience of these mainstream financial subjects has been the subject of close scrutiny, the experiences of financial subjects at the financial fringe have been rarely considered. In the UK, for example, the introduction of High-Cost, Short-Term Credit [HCSTC] or payday loan regulation was designed to protect vulnerable people from accessing unaffordable credit. Exploring the impact of HCSTC regulation is important due to the dramatic decline of the high-cost credit market which helped meet essential needs in an era of austerity. As such, the paper examines the impact of the HCSTC regulation on sixty-four financially marginalized individuals in the UK that are unable to access payday loans. First, we identify the range of socioeconomic strategies that individuals employ to manage their finances to create a typology of financial subjectivity at the financial fringe. Second, we demonstrate how the temporal and precarious nature of financial inclusion at the financial fringe adds nuance to existing debates of the everyday lived experience of financialization.


Author(s):  
Paul Craig

This chapter traces the development of what is now the EU. It first describes the origins of ideas of European unity. It then discusses the various treaties that paved the way towards broader European integration. These include the European Coal and Steel Community Treaty of 1951,the Single European Act 1986, the Treaty on European Union (TEU) of 1992, and the Lisbon Treaty of 2009. Next, the chapter turns to the impact of the global financial crisis on the EU and considers several theories of integration.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
George A. Papaconstantinou

AbstractIn the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, European Union regulators introduced the mechanism of ‘third-country equivalence’ for non-European financial institutions to access the EU internal market. This article evaluates for the first time the GATS-consistency of the European rules on third-country clearinghouses. Through this exercise, the article sheds light on the tension between financial regulation and WTO law, exploring how these two different disciplines can be reconciled. Building on the international economic law principles of non-discrimination and transparency, the analysis reveals that the European financial regulation could negatively impact the access of smaller countries to the EU market. The regulation in question is assessed under the GATS Article VI (Domestic Regulation), Article II (MFN), Article VII (Recognition), and the Annex on Financial Services prudential carve-out. The findings of the European case study indicate that the vast flexibility that trade law has delegated to national regulators possibly has adverse effects on the liberalization of financial services. The article concludes that if WTO Members do not derogate from their GATS obligations and commitments, the stability of the financial system would not be jeopardized, while the prospect of international integration would be increased.


2019 ◽  
Vol 250 ◽  
pp. R30-R33
Author(s):  
Alexis P. Lautenberg

Executive SummaryServices are simultaneously the most important sector of the UK economy and the sector facing the biggest challenge as a result of Brexit. The prospective departure from the European Single Market reduces the UK to the status of ‘3rd country’ in respect of services. Accessing the internal market will depend on both subjective and objective conditions that differ from sector to sector, requiring detailed and highly specific arrangements for such industries as aviation and financial services.In practice, the EU can be expected to use these circumstances to discourage the UK from significantly diverging from European regulatory norms, as a matter of policy. In view of the weakness of, and uncertainty surrounding, international moves to oversee, let alone to further liberalise, trade in services, Brexit will thus leave the UK's services sector – and especially financial services – uniquely isolated and exposed. The government will hence need to consider carefully the costs of decisions to diverge from EU regulatory standards, and should be giving great priority to establishing clear objectives for close cooperation between the UK and the EU policy makers and regulators.


Subject UK-EU trade talks. Significance The United Kingdom will leave the EU on January 31, 2020, but will abide by EU rules as part of the transition period, which runs to December 31, 2020. During this limited period of time, London and Brussels will seek to negotiate a permanent trading relationship. While the transition deadline can be extended, the UK government has committed not to seek an extension. Impacts The impact of no trade deal or a 'thin' one may force the UK government to increase taxes in order to meet spending pledges. UK financial services will rely on an equivalence deal with the EU; London hopes to agree this by mid-2020. The EU’s future trade policy will focus on having stronger sanction powers as well as legal ones for those that unfairly undercut EU firms.


Subject Politics and trade talks. Significance Understanding the factors that determine how long trade negotiations take will help businesses navigate the uncertainty, as the UK government prepares to negotiate trade agreements once it leaves the EU. The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the EU took seven years to finalise. Less comprehensive renegotiations of international agreements can be shorter, including the US-Mexico-Canada agreement, which took less than two years. Impacts UK sectors highly exposed to the EU or United States, including automotive and financial services, face prolonged investment uncertainty. Timing of national elections, lobbying and the ideological divergence between trade partners will determine post-Brexit trade deal talks. Continued polarisation of major economies' electorates will delay or stop other global deals, including on foreign aid and climate change.


Author(s):  
Spangler Timothy

This book provides a clear and concise dual US/UK and pan-asset analysis on the legal and regulatory issues that arise in connection with private investment funds. The book advises on the structuring, formation, and operation of a range of asset classes, including hedge funds, private equity funds, real estate funds, and other non-retail collective investment vehicles. This edition has been revised to reflect the numerous and significant developments in financial services regulation on both sides of the Atlantic since the publication of the second edition. More elements of the Dodd Frank financial regulatory reforms, which increased the scope and reach of regulation applicable to private funds, have been implemented and commented on in this edition. In relation to European regulation, the impact of the commencement of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) has also now been analysed. The US/UK approach is maintained, but this edition now also includes consideration of third countries, particularly the Middle East and Asia. An entirely new chapter is dedicated to litigation and regulatory enforcement, and some treatment is given to the effects of the global financial crisis, in particular the regulatory response and the changes to negotiating leverage of fund managers and fund investors. The potential impact of ‘Brexit’ on the United Kingdom private funds industry and the future of the AIMFD and European private funds is also examined.


Author(s):  
Scott James ◽  
Lucia Quaglia

This chapter outlines the theoretical and empirical puzzles that inform the book, its objectives, overall argument, and structure. It sets out to explain the changing preferences and influence of the UK in shaping multi-level financial regulation. In particular, the book addresses two empirical questions. Why has the UK favoured increasingly stringent regulation in certain financial sectors since the crisis, but not in others? Why has the UK led international and EU-level regulatory reforms in some areas, but has resisted these initiatives in other areas? The chapter also outlines the book’s ambition to undertake a preliminary assessment of the impact of Brexit on the future of UK financial regulation, focused on two questions. Why has the UK decided to withdraw from the EU single market in services, including finance? How is Brexit likely to impact on the UK’s regulatory preferences and ability to shape multi-level financial regulation?


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