City of London calls for post-Brexit banking rules that aid competitiveness

By Huw Jones LONDON (Reuters) - London's financial district has called for a regulatory regime in the UK that does not harm competitiveness as bankers fear that being outside the European Union will reduce the capital's clout in global markets. The City of London's Lord Mayor, Jeffrey Mountevans, will tell regulators at a dinner on Wednesday evening that after Britain's vote in June to leave the EU, "realistic, collaborative" regulation was needed to keep the sector on an even keel. "Regulation that will continue to protect our competitiveness and provide liberal market influence across the EU, even after Brexit," Mountevans said in remarks released to the media in advance of the annual Mansion House dinner for bankers and regulators. Some will see this as harking back to a discredited past. This week the City marks 30 years since the day of the "Big Bang" deregulation of London's financial markets that helped to propel London to the top of the global financial centre league table. The financial crisis of 2007-09 then forced taxpayers to bail out undercapitalised and poorly supervised lenders, tarnishing the "light touch" regulatory approach and ushering in a welter of tougher rules. But since the Brexit vote, Paris, Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Dublin have vied to win a slice of the City's financial pie should banks and other firms move operations to other countries to maintain full access to EU markets. Backers of Brexit have also voiced hopes that EU rules like caps on banker bonuses will disappear. But Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) who is also due to speak at the Mansion House dinner, has scotched talk of a bonfire of the regulations after Brexit. (Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Greg Mahlich)