Chancellor George Osborne has set out his ambitions to make Britain’s financial services sector the best regulated in the world and to have the highest standards.
During his Mansion House speech last night, in which he also announced a decision had been reached to sell off taxpayers’ stake in RBS at a loss, he said significant strides had been made to reform the sector.

But he wants to go even further.

He told guests: “Now we can raise our ambition and ensure we have the best, and most competitive financial services in the world.

“I want us to be able to say this of your industry five years from now that UK financial services will be the best regulated in the world, with markets of unquestioned integrity and the highest standards of conduct.”

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Mr Osborne said: “Our financial services industry in Britain has, in recent years, been seen as part of the problem – now it must become part of the solution.

“We have been seeking to resolve that British dilemma of being a host for global finance without exposing our taxpayers again to the calamitous cost of financial firms failing.

“I believe that in restoring the Bank of England’s role in the heart of supervision, in ring-fencing retail banking and insisting on much better capitalised firms, we have made enormous progress in solving that dilemma.”

At the end of the current Parliamentary term he believes there will be “more competition, more innovation and more players in retail markets – offering customers a better service”.

He said: “There will be new firms disrupting the status quo, and big firms raising their game in response, with Britain leading the fintech revolution.

“We will see even more high quality jobs in finance across the UK, in Edinburgh, Birmingham, Belfast, Cardiff and the great cities of the Northern Powerhouse.”

The Chancellor predicted that the City will be the leading centre for insurance and reinsurance, for asset and wealth management, for shipping, and for a wide range of legal, accounting and other professional services.

He wants Britain to be the “best place for European and global bank HQs” because he said it was in the national interest and he believes this is achievable.