By Jake Atkinson Amongst all the announcements taking place at last year’s COP in Glasgow, it was easy to have missed what was regarded by many as the most exciting development for the accountancy profession in a generation (I’ll leave it to the reader to determine how exciting that actually is). The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) was announced, created through the merger of some of the ingredients comprising the…
By Joe Dharampal-Hornby The need has never been greater to mobilise more private sector capital, at scale, to address social and environmental challenges. Within the environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement, impact investing has emerged as a leading solution. Despite ESG’s familiarity, it means different things to different people, and can often include approaches that seek to mitigate harm rather than creating impact. Impact investing, by contrast, requires investment to…
by Nick Smith Why would you want to be the same as a competitor? In any other walk of life – commerce, sport, romance, politics – we focus on differentiating ourselves. While having parity can be helpful in some respects, what we do better than the other person is always more important. While the UK was always a competitor while inside the EU, there was a framework to that competition. …
By Shayne Halfpenny-Ray Equivalence is an often discussed and at times overestimated outcome for the UK/EU negotiations, particularly in the space of financial services. Its not inevitable, its likely not to happen, and there are huge chunks of financial services unlikely either to be equivalent or have a mechanism to ever seek such a vaunted goal. I could of course end this killjoy blog here and move on to stamping…
By Tanisha Aggarwal With news that the UK and the EU have reached a deal on financial services co-operation, a pathway to future EU market access is now open for the City of London. However, the technical details do not include the UK Government’s coveted request for equivalence. The EU has indicated that this Memorandum of Understanding may open up the possibility of an equivalence agreement further down the line….
Labour in the City and Cicero/AMO are delighted to present this collection of essays on the City and its relationship with the UK economy. We are grateful to all our contributors for providing such thought-provoking and original insights, taking in everything from Albert Camus to net zero, and hope you find them equally compelling. Contributions: Introduction – Nicholas Smith & Tom Frackowiak Foreword – Rt Hon Pat McFadden MP Something is…
By Nick Smith Sympathy seems to be in short for the Goldman analysts whose feedback on their working environment made it into the public domain earlier this week. While the content was familiar territory – who’d have thought investment banking entailed long hours and a huge amount of work preparing presentation materials? – it’s rare to see concerns documented and put to management in this fashion. Some may sneer at…
By Pat McFadden There was a revealing moment in the House of Commons debate on the Government’s Brexit deal. Labour MP Peter Kyle asked the Prime Minister about the absence of coverage for financial services in the deal. The Prime Minister ducked the question but said he was glad Labour was “backing the bankers”. The Prime Minister’s response summed up how the financial services sector has been viewed by much…
Sheffield is packed with people with PhDs. The Tees Valley is home to a skilled workforce of which Britain can be proud. The City can do more to invest in talent and support entrepreneurialism in these regions. Those were some key takeaways from a Labour in the City panel discussion focusing on how the financial services industry can contribute towards a “levelling up” of Britain’s dangerously geographically lop-sided economy. Jessie…
Your business may be global – but think locally about hiring, and mentoring, young people. That was the message to City employers from Rushanara Ali, the Labour MP for Bethnal Green & Bow, during a Q&A session with Labour in the City members. Rushanara’s constituency neighbours the Square Mile – it includes Spitalfields, Whitechapel and a chunk of Bishopsgate, together with East End neighbourhoods such as Stepney and Bow. She…