Family diary – Bank of England worried about Clegg

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February 5, 2010 | 13:20

London’s Canary Wharf financial district doesn’t seem like the most suitable place to talk politics at 8am, when traders and bankers from entities such as Barclays, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup rush out of subway carriages, with just enough time to grab a quick coffee and get to their workstations.

But Friday 30 April was different. It was the morning after the last televised debate between the British leaders in the race for prime minister and the few people chatting in the newspapers and on TV were talking about other things. To add a grain of sand to the debate, Thomson Reuters organized a discussion analyzing the economic proposals of the parties and among those invited to give their opinions, the one who was most clear was Angela Knight, president of the British Banking Association. . A parliament without a majority would be “a disaster for the economy and the markets” because the parties would bring forward negotiations to form a government before embarking on issues such as electoral reforms demanded by the Liberal Democrats. Huge deficits. In this different combination of circumstances, the possibility of Liberal leader Nick Clegg becoming prime minister was described by Knight as “ridiculous”. The most striking thing about Angela Knight’s words was the severity with which she spoke. In Spain, it is rare to see the leader of the employers’ association so soaking wet a week before the election. But the reality is that the bank played a big role in the election. The Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats all have strict plans to regulate the banking sector in their plans. Without a doubt, the most striking are Clegg’s ideas: he wants to force banks to ring-fence (separate commercial and investment banking activities) and cap cash bonuses in the industry at £2,500 a year. These proposals, if implemented, would bankrupt banks such as HSBC and Barclays, for example. Given Clegg’s rise in the polls, Knight is naturally wary that bankers are starting to talk about an election.

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