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After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

nytimes.com

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Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#41

Post by yAnonymous »

varjag wrote: post #12
yAnonymous wrote: post #9

>Badly hurt by the financial crisis, the Dutch have capped bankers’ bonuses at just 20 percent of their annual salaries — a far more drastic curb than was imposed by the European Union. Several bankers told me that unless the Dutch repealed the cap, they wouldn’t consider moving to Amsterdam. “I’d love to relocate to Amsterdam,” one top executive told me. “But I don’t think we’re wanted there.” My deepest sympathy go…

If there is market incentive to move banking to Holland, it will happen. The bankers will move where the jobs go, they don't have much say in the matter.

They are basically giving the bonuses to themselves, so if they can't do that, there goes the incentive to move to that country.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#42

Post by varjag »

yAnonymous wrote: post #41
varjag wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there is market incentive to move banking to Holland, it will happen. The bankers will move where the jobs go, they don't have much say in the matter.

They are basically giving the bonuses to themselves, so if they can't do that, there goes the incentive to move to that country.

They then become unemployed as people whose money they manage move them to places with better ROI. Cruel world we live in!

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#43

Post by bodyfour »

chha wrote: post #4
gonvaled wrote: post #2

Why is English so important? You are going to speak it in the workplace, for sure, but why do you need that the people in the street are fluent in English? The couple of sentences that you'll exchange in the restaurant will come through even if people are not fluent.

Primarily because not _every_ worker will be moved when a company moves. A lot of the workforce will be local, hence the language requirements.

In most places it wouldn't be hard to just declare that the workplace is English-speaking.

The problem is that if you want to attract non-local talent, it's harder to attract them somewhere where they'll have trouble with day-to-day life. English-speaking countries have a big advantage here: no matter what nationality a professional has they probably speak English well enough to be comfortable living there.

As another poster mentioned there are cities where the overall English proficiency is so high that it matters less (Stockholm, Berlin, Amsterdam, ...)

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#44

Post by gambiting »

throwaway987611 wrote: post #40
realo wrote: post #6

Well... Actually it would seem that Scotland would really like to become independent and be part of the EU. That article should have considered Edimburg, even if it might have been a journalistic faux-pas.

Scotland won't be independent, because they would have to take the Euro. They won't be allowed to use the Pound. So, they will end up like Greece. I really why people don't see this. It's the BRITISH parliment in WESTMINISTER who will decide who uses the pound. NOT YOU, Mr/Mrs Commentator. And they will decide to not allow scotland to use it.

Well, they could, theoretically, print their own pound(as they already do) and tie its value to that of GBP. Or maybe don't do that, and have it separate, like US and Canadian dollars. I know you are going to say that if they join EU they would have to take the eruo - but I don't see why it couldn't be negotiated away, there's plenty of countries which agreed to take the Euro(Poland for example) but after the 2008 crisis, suspended the adaption indefinitely.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#45

Post by ramblerman »

Houshalter wrote: post #36
yAnonymous wrote: post #9

>Badly hurt by the financial crisis, the Dutch have capped bankers’ bonuses at just 20 percent of their annual salaries — a far more drastic curb than was imposed by the European Union. Several bankers told me that unless the Dutch repealed the cap, they wouldn’t consider moving to Amsterdam. “I’d love to relocate to Amsterdam,” one top executive told me. “But I don’t think we’re wanted there.” My deepest sympathy go…

You shouldn't have sympathy for the bankers, but it shouldn't be surprising that they would prefer countries with more favorable regulations. Anyway what is the justification for a cap on bonuses? As opposed to taxing them more or something.

> You shouldn't have sympathy for the bankers

I think that was sarcasm.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#46

Post by smcl »

_9MOTHER9HORSE wrote: post #24
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. The UK decided itself to leave the EU. The UK claims that Scotland doesn't have the legal standing to make that call itself. That's a fairly clear sign of loss of sovereignty.

No. Scotland had an independence referendum two years ago, and one of he factors in that vote was the prospect of Britain opting to leave the EU. Scotland voted decisively to remain in the UK, and to go the way of the UK on EU membership. This is notwithstanding the fact Scotland is financially dependent on the rest of the UK, and would not survive on its own, let alone meet the criteria for joining the EU on its own…

This happens a lot - Scotland gets painted as a financial ruin, too poor to join the EU. With oil prices low and a deficit it's not exactly Norway - but suggesting it's too poor to join the EU is farcical. I live in Czech Republic and it's a FAR worse off place than Scotland, yet it's one of the more prosperous of the newer EU countries. Comparing Scotland to Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Croatia (all beautiful places, no disrespect) the gap is even wider.

More likely is that Spain would make things difficult - but you didn't say this

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#47

Post by tonyedgecombe »

randomname2 wrote: post #29

Some banks are already backtracking on their promises of leaving London for Paris or Frankfurt [1] [2]. [1] http://www.ft.com/fastft/2016/06/30/hsbc-rules-out-leaving-l... [2] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/hsbc-headqua...

I don't think you can read too much into these sorts of statements, whichever way they point. They have existing staff they need to keep happy for the moment.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#48

Post by arethuza »

throwaway987611 wrote: post #40
realo wrote: post #6

Well... Actually it would seem that Scotland would really like to become independent and be part of the EU. That article should have considered Edimburg, even if it might have been a journalistic faux-pas.

Scotland won't be independent, because they would have to take the Euro. They won't be allowed to use the Pound. So, they will end up like Greece. I really why people don't see this. It's the BRITISH parliment in WESTMINISTER who will decide who uses the pound. NOT YOU, Mr/Mrs Commentator. And they will decide to not allow scotland to use it.

I'm assuming you aren't Scottish (the reference to "they") but I've never worked out why people outside of Scotland get so worked up about the fate of a small and relatively obscure country.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#49

Post by yAnonymous »

Houshalter wrote: post #36
yAnonymous wrote: post #9

>Badly hurt by the financial crisis, the Dutch have capped bankers’ bonuses at just 20 percent of their annual salaries — a far more drastic curb than was imposed by the European Union. Several bankers told me that unless the Dutch repealed the cap, they wouldn’t consider moving to Amsterdam. “I’d love to relocate to Amsterdam,” one top executive told me. “But I don’t think we’re wanted there.” My deepest sympathy go…

You shouldn't have sympathy for the bankers, but it shouldn't be surprising that they would prefer countries with more favorable regulations. Anyway what is the justification for a cap on bonuses? As opposed to taxing them more or something.

>Anyway what is the justification for a cap on bonuses?

That the bonuses are paid for with tax payers' money?

The banks fail, then get bailed out... and from the bailout money they continue to pay themselves bonuses when they actually shouldn't see a dime.

Banks had to be bailed out a bit too much recently to still be allowed such high bonuses.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#50

Post by arethuza »

gambiting wrote: post #44
throwaway987611 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scotland won't be independent, because they would have to take the Euro. They won't be allowed to use the Pound. So, they will end up like Greece. I really why people don't see this. It's the BRITISH parliment in WESTMINISTER who will decide who uses the pound. NOT YOU, Mr/Mrs Commentator. And they will decide to not allow scotland to use it.

Well, they could, theoretically, print their own pound(as they already do) and tie its value to that of GBP. Or maybe don't do that, and have it separate, like US and Canadian dollars. I know you are going to say that if they join EU they would have to take the eruo - but I don't see why it couldn't be negotiated away, there's plenty of countries which agreed to take the Euro(Poland for example) but after the 2008 cr…

Scottish banks do indeed print their own bank notes (as do some in NI)- but they are for the GDP.

Mind you, you used to get situations (a while back) where foreign exchange places in Europe would give you worse exchange rates for Scottish notes rather than English ones.

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