A research paper, financed by Australia’s CIFR (“Centre for International Finance and Regulation”) and prepared with the – clearly ultimate – purpose of promoting Sydney as an International Financial Centre (IFC), was presented at a Sydney seminar on 8 December. The authors made the bizarre suggestion that the NSW State Government “focus on initiatives that drive population growth” so that Sydney can become a more important IFC. More precisely, they suggested that Parramatta (a suburban area of the larger Sydney geographical region) be more closely incorporated into the Sydney CBD (central business district) area to contribute to building a “mega” city that could be more highly ranked as an IFC. The authors of the report, somewhat strangely, began their presentation with a video clip of […]

I have been reading a thought provoking paper by Sue Lyn Stubbs on the future of Hong Kong as an IFC, but which is also highly relevant to Shanghai. She suggests the planned creation of “The China Network” IFC (which would include Shanghai) rather than any one city dominating the East Asia region and time zone (as London and New York dominate theirs). Stubbs is optimistic about the future of Hong Kong as an IFC. She puts up a good argument, but I think she is WRONG! In my view, Hong Kong does NOT have a great future. Moreover, China will seek to reduce the role of the English language and English based common-law in the international financial system. The […]

Where should HSBC locate its headquarters? Following HSBC’s threats to move it headquarters from London, I sent out a survey to over 1000 email addresses, and 25 responded (a response rate of 2.5%). Half (ie 13) of who responded were HSBC clients. For many people (particularly those who were not clients of HSBC) the survey was not at all interesting. One sent back an email saying that he would not be completing the survey, and tartly commented on the issue of HSBC headquarters location: “Do you think we care?” The overwhelming majority of people who completed the survey worked in the “banking, finance, investment” or “professional services” sectors. The geographical locations of respondents were: Middle East (7); Australia (6); SE Asia (4); […]