titty reform
The Department of Trade has been inviting the views of the principal organisations in the City on the demand for a statutory control of City activities, possibly along the lines of the American Securities and Exchange Commission. There is already great activity on the part of those who have much to lose from change. Public relations firms have been hired with generous budgets. Backbench Members of Parliament and financial journalists are being entertained in merchant banks' lunch-rooms. All that has been missing are arguments against the need for reform, other than that the present system of self-regulation and mutual acceptibility is efficient. The City will not admit that what they fear is not policing, so much as new rules that will stop a merchant bank from controlling a unit trust group or fiduciary funds at the same time as being involved in commercial banking. Again, they fear the banning of nominee holdings and rules such as those that abolish forecasts in company statements.
After the Stock Exchange panic and collapse of the past twelve months, and the ill-concealed scandals and incestuous financial relationships that are only now being uncovered, it needs a brazen City man to say that the money of widows and orphans is as safe without regulation as it would be if reform were carried through. The more enlightened in the City accept, however, whatever they may lose in the short term, that a City which is known to be tightly controlled and above reproach will attract the international funds that are flowing to the United States, for the very reason that the system is policed.
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