Labour’s efforts to lift the burden of regulation in the City is working. The Bank of England is responding with initiatives aimed at removing regulations which piled up after the great financial crisis.
A wind-up regime for failing banks appeared to be the right response but was hopeless when Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse collapsed in 2023.
At the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) there is recognition that past coolness towards cryptocurrency may have placed the UK at disadvantage.
Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies have acquired enormous value in an era when investor trust in safer assets, such as government bonds, is at a low ebb.
But use of crypto by rogue states, criminals and conservative demagogues, such as Elon Musk, doesn’t breed confidence.
The difficulty crypto enthusiasts have in explaining how fake currencies are mined or created is enough reason for pause. Easing the rules, as we saw in the US, encourages dodgy finance.
Until now the FCA rightly has been sceptical. It is not alone. Top executives at JP Morgan and investment bankers Morgan Stanley are equally dubious.
They regard the Bitcoin price as a bubble and those running crypto exchanges as rip-off merchants charging up to six times the commission for investment in regular assets.
The FCA will demand that crypto platforms conduct business with integrity, due skill, care and diligence and treat customers fairly.
The real danger, as in New York, is that any regulation will create a ‘halo’ effect and retail investors, local authorities and others will think that platforms, ETFs and funds are safe.
A red warning flag needs to be raised over some crypto creations. Abu Dhabi investors (they can probably afford losses) and ace investor Cathie Wood of ARK are piling money into traded football enterprise Brera Holdings, soon to be renamed Solmate.
That, potentially, would be acceptable if underlying assets were Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
Instead, holdings include the last team in the Mongolian league and clubs in North Macedonia and Mozambique. With due respect to backers, such enterprises have 17th-century tulip bulb scam written all over them.
A decade has passed since City grandee Howard Davies came down in favour of a third runway at Heathrow.
Building a new strip at the nation’s hub airport makes enormous economic sense for Britain if it wants to reinforce the role of London in financial and professional services. Transatlantic travel is at the core of what Heathrow does.
However, the cost of the expansion, put at £49billion, and disruption to existing traffic are enormous obstacles.
An alternative, less costly blueprint by hotelier and landowner Surinder Arora offers big potential savings, but the cost is still put at £25billion.
Expanding Gatwick to the south, a base for easyJet, has long been a no-brainer.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander and Chancellor Rachel Reeves are right to endorse a £2.2billion plan to bring into full use a standby runway.
This has a reasonable chance of delivery by the airport’s majority Euronext-quoted owners Vinci and a firm controlled by Blackrock.
None of this is easy and will be a big test of whether Nimbys and the green lobby can overwhelm Labour’s reformed planning regime.
One obstacle is in the Government’s grasp. As the effective ‘Fat Controller’ of railways, a less erratic, more frequent service will be required.
Whether union brothers will oblige is a moot point.
Keir Starmer’s recognition of a state of Palestine, while 48 hostages are still held, is a betrayal of Israel and Anglo-Jewry.
Irrespective of the harshness of the campaign against Hamas in Gaza, it gives succour to Israel’s critics.
Amnesty International has called for an international boycott on a ‘Who’s Who’ of global aerospace firms, including Boeing as well as online travel sites such as Booking.com.
All of this provides a sombre backcloth to the two-day Jewish New Year 5786, which began last night. May all our readers enjoy a L’Shana Tova -a good and safe year.
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