J P Morgan is threatening our Chancellor that it will withdraw from moving to London if the government does not stop its attacks on The City.
So let's get this straight.
1. J P Morgan was and still is at the vanguard of the banks attack on us with their reckless derivatives gambling and predictable bailouts
2. so our politicians have a right to be pissed off at the banks, though they are very very tame in their criticisms
3. yet J P Morgan is now threatening to abandon its move to London
Alistair! Tell JPM to F off. We don't need them and their policies. We don't need any more parasites. We need people with real ideas to build a real economy for the British people, not gamblers who will suck the life out of us and then ask us to bail them out.
i.e. Fuck 'em!
===========================
From http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/6900501/JP-Morgan-may-scrap-1.5bn-London-HQ-plan-over-Labours-attacks-on-City.html
JP Morgan may scrap £1.5bn London HQ plan over Labour's attacks on City
JP Morgan, the giant US investment bank, has warned the Chancellor it may scrap plans to build a £1.5bn flagship European headquarters in Canary Wharf if politicians don't rein in their attacks on the City.
By Philip Aldrick and Jonathan Sibun
Published: 3:20PM GMT 28 Dec 2009
Jamie Dimon, chief executive, made the coded warning to Alistair Darling in an angry phone call after the Government revealed its 50pc super-tax on bonuses in the pre-Budget report. Although Mr Dimon did not explicitly threaten to can the 1.9m square foot Docklands development, he pointedly used it to demonstrate the bank's commitment to London.
When JP Morgan bought the land for £237m in November last year, it wrote into its contract with Songbird Estates, the owner of Canary Wharf, an option to pull out. A decision has to be made before the option expires by the end of 2010.
At the time, the bank's ambitious plan for a five-year development that left acres of room to grow was seen as a strong vote of confidence in London, demonstrationg its intention to invest and expand in the UK.
However, JP Morgan is now considering its options, in part as a result of the authorities change in attitude. Concerns have been raised by the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) crackdown on pay, which bankers say is stricter than any other major financial centre, and the 50pc higher rate of income tax, as well as the super-tax on bonuses above £25,000. Global regulatory changes have also contributed.
Sources close to the bank said scrapping or substantially scaling down the development has been on the cards for the past two months. "Why would you want to make that kind of investment in London now?" a senior insider said. Others claimed that Mr Dimon was so furious with the Treasury about the super-tax – as JP Morgan has not received UK Government support – that "he wanted to lay down a marker".
Bankers say regulatory pressure and the shifting tax regime have made Britain a far less attractive place to do business. International banks, which assess where to place their capital at the end of every financial year, now plan to scale back investment in the UK. Even Paris, which has introduced a watered-down version of the super-tax on cash bonuses alone, is stealing a march over its traditionally superior rival, London.
JP Morgan's implicit threat is the clearest example yet of disquiet. A Treasury spokesman confirmed the call, adding: "Alistair Darling regularly discusses this type of issue with senior executives. The tax on bonuses is a fair measure because no bank would be left standing without Government intervention."
A JP Morgan executive stressed: "There were no threats made on the call and we have made no decisions on people or buildings based on the super-tax announcement."
In addition to the super-tax, bankers have been exasperated by the FSA's new rules on pay, which "are not in line with other countries", one said.
The FSA defines all bankers on £1m or more as holding "significant influence functions" and demands that 60pc of their bonus is deferred over three years. Certain bankers on £500,000 and above also fall into the category.
Executives say the FSA definition catches "two to four times as many staff" as qualify under guidelines from the Financial Stability Board, the global regulator. In other countries, under the G20 accord, "it doesn't apply to as big a population", one banker said – further damaging the City's competitiveness in retaining talent.
This banker expects the super-tax to raise £3bn to £5bn and catch as many as 100,000 bankers, rather than the £550m and 20,000 the Treasury predicts.
No comments:
Post a Comment