The French boss of Europe’s biggest asset manager has defended London in a boost for the City amid intense debate about its future as a financial centre.
The intervention by Valérie Baudson, who runs Amundi, a €2 trillion investment group based in Paris, comes as concerns grow within the government and in the Square Mile that London is becoming less competitive as a hub for finance and as a place for companies to list.
However, Baudson, 52, said that Amundi remained committed to London, where the firm has had a presence since 1999 and which is the base for its global fixed-income and emerging markets investment teams. Its UK operations manage about £45 billion.
“London is a fantastic financial centre and will remain a fantastic financial centre,” she said. “All the players are here, so I’m not worried about the future of London.” She cited its “very large pool of talent” and the reputation of Britain’s financial regulators as central to the City’s appeal.
While worries that finance jobs could move en masse from Britain to the Continent as a result of Brexit have proved to be overdone, there has been a steady trickle of roles away from London to cities including Paris, Amsterdam and Madrid. Baudson conceded that the French’s capital’s strength as a hub “has been reinforced recently”.
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Research last year by EY, the professional services group, found that financial firms had set out plans to move more than £1.3 trillion of British assets to the European Union since the Brexit referendum. There are also concerns that New York is sapping business from the Square Mile. These worries have been fuelled by the decision to float Arm Holdings, the Cambridge-based chip designer, on Wall Street, while a quoted companies including CRH, the building materials supplier, and Smurfit Kappa, the packaging group, are switching their main stock market listings from the City to Wall Street.
A series of reviews have examined ways of bolstering London’s competitiveness and the Financial Conduct Authority has overhauled its listing regime. Nevertheless, worries remain and the authority is working on a further simplification of the listing rulebook, which would replace the premium and standard segments of the stock market with a single category. Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has unveiled three sets of changes — the Edinburgh and Mansion House reforms and a loosening of insurance capital rules — to turbocharge the City and domestic investment.
