How Big Bang ruined the City. Did 1980s reforms cause the 2008 financial crisis and all that followed?
- 👤 Speaker: Martin Vander Weyer, The Spectator
- 📅 Date & Time: Monday 13 March 2023, 17:00 - 18:30
- 📍 Venue: John Bradfield Room, Darwin College and Zoom
Abstract
Martin Vander Weyer was a City practitioner at the time of Big Bang in 1986 as a director of BZW , the investment banking arm of Barclays that was a flagship of the revolution in ownership and trading rules. Since 1992 he has been a financial commentator with a particular interest in City history. He will review the rationale and impact of Big Bang, not so much in terms of continued concentration of financial activity in London as in terms of other consequences, intended or otherwise. What did Big Bang do to risk behaviour, ethical standards and client relationships? Was ‘Wimbledonisation’ of the City (in which British players rarely win trophies) an altogether bad thing? Did these changes fertilise the market excesses that preceded 2008? Or was Big Bang an overdue correction of what went before, essential to maintaining London’s global pre-eminence in finance?
Series This talk is part of the Financial History Seminar series.
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Martin Vander Weyer, The Spectator
Monday 13 March 2023, 17:00-18:30