Gordon Brown on light touch financial regulation

[muriel_volestrangler]

Like you I want a Britain that is a leader in the world's fastest growing, most wealth-creating sectors at the cutting edge of global advance – in capital markets and financial services; in science and innovation; in creativity and enterprise; in skills and education.

More than ever, as we have discovered, in one of the most challenging years for the global economy, the foundation for growth is economic stability. We know that in a global economy investment flows to the stable economies and away from the volatile. So when I present my Pre-Budget Report on Monday, I will show how Britain has taken long-term decisions on monetary and fiscal policy and moved from being one of the stop-go economies of the world to one of the most stable.

Under our monetary and fiscal regime we will maintain low inflation, low public debt and a long-term commitment to strong fiscal discipline. And nothing we do will endanger that position.

Upon our foundation of stability, Britain can become the location of choice and the place to do business. Take financial services and capital markets: today Britain exports twice as much in business services as we import and four times as much in financial services.

And I want to congratulate businesses here on their drive, global competitiveness and innovation which have made the City of London alongside New York the leading financial centres of the world - London, the world’s largest foreign exchange market, the largest foreign equity market, the largest bond market - London's success born not out of serving a large domestic economy, but on winning the lion’s share of international business.

I want us to build on our advantages - your talent for innovation, the critical mass of skills now in London, our openness to the world including our deepening links with China and India, a unique combination of language, time zone and a legal system that makes English law the law of choice for international contracts. And now the determination of the financial services authority to extend their risk-based approach of financial regulation that is both a light touch and a limited touch.

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/1847.htm

Oh, silly me, that was from December 2005. Just as well Britain's long term policy had made it one of the most stable economies, then, eh?

Got the basic message? Capital markets and financial services are 'wealth-creating', and the innovation in the City of London has been a marvellous thing. All those new ideas about securitisation, and derivatives, are brilliant. Just as long as regulation stays both limited and light, of course. But don't worry, the approach to regulation is 'risk-based', so we can be sure all that innovation isn't risky in any form, can't we?

:banghead:

If you're wondering what happened to the 'low inflation' and 'low public debt':

Consumer Prices Index, Dec 2005: 1.9%; Aug 2008: 4.7%
Public sector debt, as % of GDP, Dec 2005 - about 35%; Aug 2008, 43.3% (see http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=206)