‘The City is in no doubt that staying in Europe is the only way ahead,’ declared Mark Boleat for the City of London Corporation. Likewise Chris Cummings of the lobby group TheCityUK praised David Cameron for delivering ‘a really special deal’. The official Square Mile is squarely for ‘remain’, confident that the Prime Minister has secured safeguards to let the UK keep control of a thriving financial sector in a multi–currency EU. But with all due respect, I wonder what the real players think.
The economists Gerard Lyons and Ruth Lea are two other respected City voices, and they warn that those safeguards won’t be worth much as Paris, Frankfurt and Brussels pursue their long-term aim of grabbing financial activity from us. Meanwhile, many dealmakers and wealth managers — including European expats who love London — believe the City can thrive in or out, but that what it might lose by coming out would be more than compensated by new business fleeing the eurozone’s regulatory straitjacket and stifling hostility to markets.
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