伦敦能保住全球金融中心的地位吗？

保卫银行

    卡梅伦的要求很简单：在欧元区爆发债务危机之际，英国最大的挑战就是确保伦敦金融业的盈利能力不受波及。眼下，占领伦敦运动的抗议者晚上睡在金融城的帐篷里，白天去金丝雀码头带头进行“恶棍游行”，鉴于这种背景，这种观点并非没有争议。对于复杂融资大行其道的岁月，随后的金融危机，以及其对整个经济造成的破坏性影响，大多数英国人依然余怒未消。

    然而，卡梅伦的立场却符合英国政治家长久以来竭尽全力为银行谋利益的传统。上世纪60年代，美国开始对华尔街执行严苛的监管制度，英国却继续实施轻度监管政策，并进一步放松了工作签证要求，由此迎来了许多美国银行和其他外国机构。这番努力大获成功。伦敦现在拥有全球最大的跨境银行借贷市场、外汇市场和场外（OTC）衍生品市场。金融城管理的每3美元中，就有1美元源自海外。2010年，世界经济论坛（World Economic Forum）宣称伦敦是全球首屈一指的金融中心。

    全球金融危机及其对借贷市场带来的余波注定会削弱任何一个以金融作为主要出口项目的民主国家的经济实力。针对金融城的监管业已收紧——银行现在不得不持有更多的资本，最富裕的金融家（无论他是英国人，还是外国人）需要缴纳的税收也远远高于过去的水平。然而，银行家们目前最担心的并不是伦敦监管当局，而是布鲁塞尔。肩负监管之责的英国金融服务管理局（FSA）表示，该机构大约70%的政策都受到欧盟相关方案的影响（而欧盟在进行决策时，并不会以维系伦敦的金融中心地位为准绳）。

    这个问题凸显了欧盟当前面临的两难处境：如何在迥然不同的政体间实现主权共享这一理念。为了让欧盟存活下去，德国和法国试图施加严厉的紧缩措施，其中许多措施直指银行。《欧洲市场基础作业监理改革提案》（European Market Infrastructure Regulation）旨在压缩伦敦衍生品市场的规模。最让伦敦苦恼的主意莫过于金融交易税，它的开征将显著提升所有银行开展业务的成本。

    欧盟委员会称，这一税收每年将筹集750亿美元的资金。但英国财政大臣乔治•奥斯本在一次言辞激烈的演讲中指出，由于欧洲超过三分之一的批发银行市场都是在伦敦之外运作，这笔账单80%的费用最终将由英国来承担。

    更广泛地说，英国强烈地感受到，欧盟的金融监管是不对称的：“英国是在监管银行，而欧盟是在惩罚银行，”金融创新研究中心（Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation）主任安德鲁•希尔顿博士如是说。

Defending the banks

    Cameron's claim is simple: That Britain's biggest challenge when it comes to the eurozone crisis is making sure that the profitability of London's financial sector remains intact. Yet given the backdrop -- Occupy London protestors sleeping in the City in tents and leading "villain tours" through Canary Wharf -- the point isn't uncontroversial. Most British are still angry at the reckless years of high finance, the ensuing financial crisis, and its ravaging effects across the economy.

    Yet Cameron's stand fits within a long history of British politicians bending over backward for banks. In the 1960s, after the U.S. enforced harsh regulation on Wall Street, the U.K. welcomed American banks and other foreign firms by keeping regulation light and work permit requirements relaxed. The effort was a striking success. London now has the largest global cross-border bank lending market, foreign exchange market, and over-the-counter derivatives market. One out of three dollars managed in the city is foreign. In 2010, the World Economic Forum declared London to be the world's leading financial center.

    The global financial crisis and its reverberations in lending markets were bound to weaken any democracy with finance as its strongest export. Regulations in the City have tightened—banks now have to hold more capital, and the richest financiers, whether English or foreign, have to pay a lot more in taxes. The primary present concern of the banks, however, is Brussels, not London. The FSA, Britain's financial regulatory authority, says that around 70% of its policy-making efforts are driven by European initiatives that are not geared toward preserving London as a financial center.

    The problem underscores the entire dilemma with the European Union: the idea of sharing sovereignty among very different regimes. For the European Union to survive, Germany and France want to impose tough austerity measures, in many cases targeting banks. The EMIR--the European Market Infrastructure Regulation--aims to shrink London's derivatives market. The most disturbing idea to London is a financial transaction tax, which will dramatically increase the cost of doing business for every bank.

    The European Commission says such a tax would raise $75 billion per year. But since more than a third of Europe's wholesale finance market operates out of London, England would end up footing 80% of the bill, according to a damning speech by UK Chancellor George Osborne.

    More broadly, there is a strong sense in the UK that European financial regulation is disproportionate: "England regulates its banks. Europe punishes theirs," says Dr. Andrew Hilton, director of the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation.