Moles stop play
MICHAEL HAWKES, chairman of Kleinwort Benson (which, as merchant banks go, trumps Samuel Montagu) was asked this week whether ministers' tough talk would help him develop his business in Tokyo. His expression became quizzical: 'I wouldn't think so — no.' Kleinwort has a big presence in Tokyo, where it employs a hundred people and has associate mem- bership of the Stock Exchange. 'We'd like to be in on the next round of full mem- berships,' says Mr Hawkes. The Exchange, characteristically, is pleading shortage of space. No one expects it to find more space because it has been asked nicely or offered a bunch of chrystanthemums, but the Bank of England has been able to negotiate Britain's part in the opening up of Japan's financial markets, by trading like for like. The Bank's negotiating metaphor is the level playing-field. A large part of the world's playing-field was levelled earlier this year, when the Bank and its US opposite numbers agreed to accept com- mon yardsticks for the supervision of inter- national banks. Our European partners, told about the agreement when it hap- pened, were cross, but what mattered was to make it apply in the world's three dominant financial centres — London, New York, and, next, Tokyo. That must be less likely now that the London playing- field has been invaded by ministerial moles. Of the three centres, two have huge domestic economies to serve, and interna- tional business need not be their first concern. They have huge domestic econo- mies to serve. We must export.
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