'Focus on Asia, not Europe' urges bank boss
The UK's financial services sector should define its own post-Brexit agenda and start to concentrate on markets in the US and Asia, the boss of Barclays said on Friday.
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"What the UK needs, and London needs, is to make sure that the City is one of the best places, whether (in terms of) regulation or law or language or talent."I think what London needs to be focused on is not Frankfurt or Paris, it needs to be focused on New York and Singapore."But Mr Staley said the UK should "not burn one piece of regulation", not least because the current, robust system was a major strength.One of the EU's fears is that the UK will abandon the current regulatory framework and that London will become a 'Singapore-on-Thames' as some have suggested. But Mr Staley that the UK should do everything it could to foster trust with the EU, though not at the cost of becoming uncompetitive in the global market.In a separate interview, Catherine McGuinness, head of policy at the City of London Corporation, said that while financial services were largely ignored in the trade deal with the EU, the sector was in a good position because it started preparing for Brexit years ago.EU, the sector was in a good position because it started preparing for Brexit years ago."We have been disappointed in the lack of focus on the financial professional services sector, which is a critical part of our economy," she said. "But the minute the referendum result was announced, the institutions started planning how they would be able to serve their customers in whatever circumstances developed."She agreed with Mr Staley that there was no need for widespread deregulation. "One reason why people want to come and do business here is because they trust the regulation."We're not hearing any great demand for a bonfire of regulation but we do need to look at how can we keep influencing and working with global standards to meet global challenges."
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