Top banks vow to save London

LONDON: As France beckons London-based banks and financial institutions to relocate to Paris after the June 23 Brexit vote, five top executives of banks— including

LONDON: As France beckons London-based banks and financial institutions to relocate to Paris after the June 23 Brexit vote, five top executives of banks— including Viswas Raghavan of Morgan Stanley — pledged to work to retain London’s pre-eminent position in finance.

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The five executives met chancellor George Osborne on Thursday as analysts feared the pound could fall to the value of the dollar due to continuing uncertainty over the political situation after the Brexit vote. More fund managers stopped trading over redemption fears. The pound has fallen almost 12.2% against the dollar since June 23. The pound was worth $1.29 on Wednesday.

Besides Raghavan, the four executives were Bill Winters (Standard Chartered), Michael Sherwood( Gold man Sachs ), Alex Wilmot-Sitwell (Bank of America) and Robert Rooner (Morgan Stanley).

They said after the meeting: “One of Britain’s key economic strengths is that it is a world leading financial centre. It has one of the most stable legal systems in the world, a brilliant workforce and deep, liquid capital markets unmatched anywhere else in Europe, all of which are underpinned by world class regulators”.

Reports from Paris said that the French government has pledged to make its tax regime for expatriates the most favourable in Europe in its bid to attract London banking business rattled by the Brexit vote.

“We want to build the financial capital of the future,” the prime minister, Manuel Valls, said at a hastily arranged visit to the annual conference of France’s financial industry lobby, Europlace. “In aword, now is the time to come to France.”