{"id":69988,"date":"2016-04-27T10:32:54","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T10:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=5afc5c913f16df9dd4862fb5ffa66dee"},"modified":"2016-04-27T10:32:54","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T10:32:54","slug":"speech-eu-membership-a-gateway-to-european-markets-says-greg-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=69988","title":{"rendered":"Speech: EU membership a ‘gateway to European markets’, says Greg Hands"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n

Good afternoon \u2013 it\u2019s great to be here today (27 April 2016) in Mansion House, and many thanks to Gerald and the City of London Corporation for inviting me along to talk to you. <\/p>\n

Let me introduce myself – I\u2019m Greg Hands and I\u2019m the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, as well as the MP for Chelsea and Fulham \u2013 some of you here may even be my constituents. As Chief Secretary, my job is to run all of public spending.<\/p>\n

But before I entered politics I used to work in financial services myself, in the 1990s \u2013 including at two foreign banks \u2013 and people in the City often tell me that once you\u2019ve worked in the industry, you can never really leave it behind!<\/p>\n

When I started work at Credit Suisse in 1990, it was only 3 years after the \u2018Big Bang\u2019, and working for a foreign bank seemed like an exotic adventure. Now, graduates would treat it as something entirely natural, so open has London become to the global financial services industry. <\/p>\n

So although my day job is mainly focused on managing the \u00a3742 billion this country spends every year, I\u2019m really pleased to talk to you today about a subject which is still very close to my heart: making sure the UK remains one of the best financial hubs in the World.<\/p>\n

World Leaders<\/h2>\n

The UK is officially the world\u2019s premier international financial centre. <\/p>\n

Three leading independent surveys all rank London number one last year, praising our stable legal system, skilled workforce, and cluster of complementary professional services. <\/p>\n

We should be really proud of this achievement, and vow to maintain it. <\/p>\n

We manage over \u00a36 trillion of assets here \u2013 with well over half of that from international banking. <\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got around half of the world\u2019s top financial firms choosing to base their European HQs here in the UK. <\/p>\n

In fact, there are more bank head offices here in London than in any other place in the world.<\/p>\n

And the contribution you make to our economy is huge:<\/p>\n

International banking accounts for around half of the worth of our entire banking sector, give work to just under a third of its employees, and pay over 50% of its taxes. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we are not resting on our laurels, and so I\u2019d like to talk about just 4 areas where we\u2019re taking action to make sure Britain is a place that banks from across the world wish to be based in:<\/p>\n