|
 
- 帖子
- 7981
- 积分
- 716
- 原创译作
- 200 篇
- 注册时间
- 2006-6-16
    
|
[2006.10.25][Britain]London as a financial centre:Capital City
London as a financial center 世界金融中心—伦敦
Capital City 金融之都
Oct 19th 2006
From The Economist print edition
Twenty years ago London embarked on a remarkable transformation to become a global financial centre. It now has to keep its lead.
伦敦在20年前进行了一次成功的转型，成为全球的金融中心。如今的它必须保持领导地位
ONCE a year the Lord Mayor of London invites top financiers to the “City Banquet” at Mansion House, his official home. It is one of many opulent functions hosted by a Gilbert-and-Sullivan-sounding figure whose grand title harks back to the middle ages, when the Lord Mayor really did run the capital rather than act as an honorific salesman for its financial centre. But although the old City of London still celebrates its ancient traditions—today's Lord Mayor is the 678th—the new City has discovered a modern destiny as a hub of international finance since far-reaching reforms transformed the London stockmarket 20 years ago.
伦敦金融城的市长每年都要举行一次“正式的宴会”，招待那些顶尖的金融家们，地点是在他的办公场所Mansion House。这只是伦敦金融城的市长，这个Gilbert和Sullivan戏剧中的时代人物，举办的许多正式宴会中的一个。伦敦金融城市长的勋爵爵位的授予要追溯到遥远的中世纪，在那时，市长拥有实权，而不象现在只是向外界推广介绍自己管辖的城市。虽然伦敦金融城还在举行着悠久历史的传统仪式，（今年的市长已经是第678任了）但使金融城重获新生却缘自于20年前进行一场改革，这场针对其股票交易市场改革意义深远，将伦敦转型为国际的金融中心。
That revolution was called “Big Bang” because new ways of trading shares came into effect on one day, October 27th 1986. Just as the universe exploded after Big Bang, so the City has burst from its former boundaries around the old “square mile” of the Lord Mayor's domain and, in the process, redrawn the capital's skyline.
那次大变革被称为“大爆炸”（Big Bang）,一些关于股票交易的新法规于1986年10月27日这一天，正式生效。这正如宇宙在大爆炸之后的情形一样，从此金融城从以往的狭小的“一平方英里”市长领地，蜕变成为首都一道新的亮丽风景线。
Twenty years ago, Canary Wharf was a wasteland in east London's docklands. Now it sprouts skyscrapers, including Britain's tallest, that provide palatial premises for global banks with giant trading floors. There are now almost as many financial staff working in just this one area as in the whole of Frankfurt, London's main European rival, says George Iacobescu, Canary Wharf Group's chief executive.
20年前Canary Wharf只是伦敦东区码头的一块荒地。如今已是充斥着摩天大楼，这其中就包括英国的第一高楼，为全球的银行业提供着巨型的交易场地和宏伟的办公场所。按照Canary Wharf集团的CEO George Iacobescu先生的说法，仅在此地工作的金融界人士的数量就相当于整个在法兰克福金融界工作的人数，法兰克福是伦敦在欧洲金融市场的主要竞争对手。
The City has also expanded to the west. Hedge funds have plumped for boutique offices in the choicer parts of the West End, like Mayfair. And a short cab-ride to the north at Marylebone, BNP Paribas employs 3,100 staff—the most in any of its buildings in the world—at a swish office that opened in 1997. The French bank's trading floor, with 850 desks and 2,550 screens, could double as a football pitch.
金融城也在向西扩展，对冲基金公司已经在West End（例如Mayfair）建起了他们豪华的办公室。搭乘计程车，只要花很短的时间就能到达Marylebone,法国巴黎银行（BNP Paribas）在这里的员工就达3,100人，时髦的办公室建立于1997年，恐怕也是世界上最大的办公机构。这个法国银行的交易大厅，拥有850个席位和2,550个屏幕，相当于2个足球场那么大。
Within the square mile itself, the City's incessant demand for more space has led to a huge wave of new developments. To the east of the great dome of St Paul's Cathedral, built in the late 17th century, a cluster of 21st-century skyscrapers is planned as new towers with names like the “Helter-skelter” join the “Gherkin”, completed three years ago. Within less than a decade, the view from the Thames may look like the illustration above.
就在这狭小的“一平方英里”内城里面，由于持续旺盛的需求，金融城也在不停有开发着新的项目，往东挨着17世纪的圣保罗大教堂，一群被命名为“Helter-skelter”的21世纪的摩天大楼正在酝酿之中，加入了3年前已经竣工的“Gherkin”楼群行列。在短短的不到10年内，泰晤士河边的景色已经焕然一新。
The property boom reflects the City's expansion since Big Bang. The specialist workforce that carries out international financial business has risen by a half in the past 15 years, according to CEBR, a consultancy that monitors the London economy. These highly paid financiers, traders and professionals are now much more cosmopolitan. At BNP Paribas, for example, 35% of its staff in London are foreign nationals; less than half of these are French.
地产业的兴旺折射出金融城大变革后的扩张。根据一家一直关注伦敦经济的咨询公司，CEBR的统计数据，在金融城从事国际金融业务的专业人士数量在过去的15年增加了50%。这些享受着高薪人士包括金融人士，交易商及专业人士，来自于不同背景的国家。例如在法国巴黎银行（BNP Paribas）的伦敦分部，员工有35%是外籍人士，法国国籍的人还不到一半。
Few doubt that London's élan owes much to the revolution in its securities markets. “There is just no comparison now between the City's standing today and 20 years ago,” says David Lascelles, co-director of the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, a think-tank. “London wouldn't be in this position without Big Bang.” But can the City maintain its role as a global financial centre? Just this week the British government set up a taskforce, partly to signal to the City that it values London's standing. Other cities, not least New York, are keen to steal footloose financial transactions away. Exchanges are joining forces, making trading hubs, such as Chicago, potentially more powerful (see article). For all its historic success, London will be relentlessly tested in the future.
毫无质疑，伦敦的新生得益于证券市场的变革。“现在和20年前金融城的定位已是大相径庭了”一家智库，金融创新研究中心（Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation）的联合董事David Lascelles说，“如果没有那次大的变革，伦敦就没有今天的地位。”伦敦金融城能够保持全球金融中心的地位么？就在上周英国政府成立了一个特别小组，其中部分的任务就是评价金融城对伦敦定位的影响力。包括纽约的其他城市，正试图在金融交易的业务中分一杯羹。交易所之间强强联合，形成交易的枢纽，芝加哥就是一个潜在的强势竞争对手。从历史的经验来看，伦敦的中心地位将面临着来自其他城市不断地挑战。
Club rules 会所规则
Even before the revolution at the stock exchange, the City had defied historical odds by re-establishing itself in the 1960s and 1970s as the top international financial centre. Just as London had gained that position at the height of British economic supremacy in the 19th century, so New York might have been expected to take on the role after the second world war, when the dollar was pre-eminent. Instead heavy-handed regulations (such as interest-rate ceilings that made it unattractive to leave short-term deposits in America) drove international finance out of Wall Street. It found a ready home in London where the Bank of England monitored foreign banks with a feather-light touch.
即使在证券交易市场的大变革之前，金融城在上个世纪的60及70年代一直在为维护自己的国际金融中心的地位不歇地努力。正如伦敦受益于19世纪英国经济霸主的地位，在第二次世界大战之后，随着美元的强势，纽约本应在金融上获得领先的地位。但美国铁腕的监管政策使得纽约渐渐失去了金融中心的地位（对利率的最高限额也不利于在美国的短期存款），而英格兰银行较为宽松的管理吸引了外国银行到伦敦来安家落户。
By the early 1980s, the City had become an international banking bazaar. Walk down any of its narrow streets and you could enter banks from around the world; Moorgate was nicknamed “the Avenue of the Americas”. London played host to far more foreign banks than any other financial centre and had the biggest slice of the foreign-exchange market.
直到上个世纪的80年代，伦敦金融城成为国际银行业的大市场。走在狭长的街道上，你几乎可以看到世界上所有的银行。Moorgate的绰号是“美洲的林荫道”。伦敦有比其他金融中心都要多的外国银行，还是最大的外汇交易市场。
Business had gravitated to the City because its role was based no longer on sterling but on offshore currencies, predominantly dollars, held outside America. Yet there was a missing dimension. Although the City had opened up to the world in international banking, it had kept the shutters firmly closed in its stockmarket.
由于英镑不再作为结算的单位，取而代之的是以美元为主其他离岸货币，金融城渐渐失去了往日的地位。虽然金融城有着开放的国际银行业，但其股票市场却是相对的封闭。这使问题更加严重。
The London stock exchange was a closed shop, marked by an antiquated division between brokers who brought the business and jobbers who made markets in shares. Brokers were paid a fixed minimum commission on shares and gilts, which ripped off big clients, and jobbers lacked the capital to deal in big amounts. Trading in top British shares was starting to move to New York, where investment banks were able to offer keener prices because they could combine broking and market-making as well as underwriting new issues. The stock exchange was unable to reform because its rulebook was due to come under legal attack in a court case brought by the Office of Fair Trading. In July 1983 the exchange reached a historic deal with the Conservative government. The case was dropped. In return the exchange agreed to get rid of minimum commissions by the end of 1986.
伦敦证券交易市场过去是一个封闭的市场，令人垢病的是其过时的分类：进行交易的股票经纪人和负责做市的股票做市商。股票经纪人的手续费是固定的，这使得大客户深为不满，而做市商缺乏资本经营大宗业务。原本在伦敦的业务渐渐地流向了纽约，在那里股票经纪人可以同时是做市商或是新股承销商，使得交易的价格更加灵活。伦敦的股市本身受到法律条文的约束，修改规则将受到英国公平交易部的法庭诉讼，使得其想要开展的改革无法进行。1983年7月，伦敦证券交易所和当时的保守党政府达成了具有历史性的协议：1986年底之前交易所取消最低手续费，以换取公平交易部放弃对它的诉讼请求。
Well before then, a bidding war had started for the stock exchange's Victorian-sounding member firms. In a giddy rush of deals, banks both domestic and international took stakes in virtually every broker and jobber worth having. Two British ventures raised especially high hopes. S.G. Warburg, a merchant bank that had pioneered London's eurobond market based on offshore dollars in the early 1960s, plunged into the fray. And Barclays, a high-street bank, created BZW, an investment bank, from its acquisitions.
在此之前，为了争夺交易所维多利亚式的成员席位，很多公司参加了竞争的行列。在一连串眼花缭乱的交易中，国内外银行都在争夺着每一个股票经纪人或做市商的资格。其中的两家英国银行，华宝银行（S.G Warburg）和巴克莱银行（Barclays）愿望颇为强烈，华宝银行是一家商业银行，领导着在伦敦以离岸美元为结算单位的欧洲债券市场。位于繁华市区的巴克莱银行通过并购创立了BZW投资银行。
Big Bang was a turning point in the City's postwar history, securing its position as a centre for trading international equities. The City signalled its welcome to foreign financial firms by sweeping away cosy club rules that protected domestic incumbents. American commercial banks, at that time unable to carry out securities business in the United States, were able to treat London as a laboratory.
大变革（Big Bang）是金融城二战后的一个历史转折点，由此确保其国际证券交易中心的地位。它废除了保护国内同行的繁琐规则，为国外金融机构打开了一扇新的大门。在当时，美国的商业银行在美国不被允许从事证券业务，于是伦敦的股票市场就成为了他们新的投资实验场。
By October 1986, the City already felt quite different. American investment bankers brought a brash new style to its financial markets, including breathtaking bonuses and early starts. The City, long notorious as a stuffy place where the old school tie mattered more than talent, became more meritocratic. The boisterous colour-jacketed traders in financial futures at LIFFE, a market founded in 1982, typified the new unbuttoned style of business.
到了1986年10月，金融城已经面貌一新。美国投资银行家们带来了一整套金融市场新的管理方式，包括那令人咋舌的奖金和先进的管理思想。金融城长期以来以裙带关系而备受指责，现在这个让人觉得沉闷的地方转变成为重视人才的场所，吸引了更多精英人士的加入。1982年成立的伦敦国际金融期货交易所（LIFFE），活跃在其中的交易人员身着亮眼的彩色夹克衫，这显示了金融城更加开放的管理风格。
Trading places 交易场所
But after thriving for most of the 1980s, the City looked fragile ten years after Big Bang. The early 1990s brought recession to Britain and cuts in the number of City jobs. Then the two main British contenders as investment banks fell by the wayside. In 1995 S.G. Warburg was bought by the Swiss; and two years later, Barclays pulled the plug on BZW. As if this was not enough, Nick Leeson's rogue trading brought down Barings, a centuries-old merchant bank once called the sixth great power of Europe.
经过1980年代大多数时间的繁荣之后，金融城在大变革之后进入了一个十年调整时期。在90年代初期，英国经济进入萧条，金融城的工作职位也少起来。英国两家主要的投资银行也遭受挫败，1995年，华宝银行（S.G.Warburg）被瑞士的一家公司收购。巴克莱银行（Barclays）也终止了BZW的业务。事情更糟糕的是，尼克·利森（Nick Leeson）的冒险交易导致了巴林银行（Barings）的倒闭，巴林银行是一家有着100多年历史的商业银行，在欧洲曾经排名第6。
Ahead loomed the euro. The risk was that footloose financial firms might forsake the City and cluster instead in Frankfurt, home of the new European Central Bank. The fears proved groundless. Far from undermining London, the euro strengthened the City's grip in European finance, says Douglas McWilliams, chief executive of CEBR. With the fading of the small centres that had specialised in bilateral trading between the former currencies, London dominated euro trading.
欧元的到来使人对金融城的前景不乐观，人们推测灵活的金融机构因此将背离伦敦而转向法兰克福，这个欧洲中央银行总部的所在地。事实证明推测并不正确。英国经济和商业研究中心（CEBR）CEO Douglas McWilliams认为，欧元不仅没有削弱伦敦金融城的地位，反而加强了它对欧洲金融的掌控。原因在于随着欧洲国家之间货币的消失，针对于此的小型货币兑换中心也随之关门，伦敦因此主导了欧元的交易。
Over the same period, London surfed the next big breaking wave of products. Although Euronext took over LIFFE in 2002, 98% of the value of the Paris-based exchange's trading in derivatives was done in London last year. More important, the City secured a commanding stake in “over-the-counter” derivatives, which are traded off exchanges primarily with banks. The value of these commitments is now four-to-five times greater than those on exchanges owing to investors' ravenous appetite for financial products that parcel up and repackage risk. London's share of this booming market has risen from 27% of daily turnover in 1995 to 43% in 2004.
与此同时，金融城迎来了新一轮的产品创新。虽然Euronext2002年并购了伦敦国际金融期货交易所（LIFFE），去年就有98%的有关巴黎交易所的金融衍生产品在伦敦交易。更为重要的事，伦敦主导了场外衍生工具，这种主要是银行相互间在场外进行交易。由于投资者对利润的追逐冒险的胃口越来越大，对这种资产重组打包之类的金融产品更感兴趣，此类交易比在场内的交易量还要大4到5倍。在伦敦股市上，这种全新的交易产品所占的日交易量份额从1995年的27%增长到2004年的43%。
Some of the biggest customers for derivatives are hedge funds, which offer sophisticated investors opportunities to gain from trading strategies (for example, making money in falling stockmarkets) as well as through asset allocation. Here again, London has elbowed its way into a high-growth financial industry. The global value of assets in hedge funds has doubled since the end of 2002 to reach $1.2 trillion. Although the industry is dominated by the east coast of America, investments managed out of London are worth a fifth of the world total, up from a tenth in 2002, and almost four-fifths of those in Europe.
对金融衍生产品而言，对冲基金是其中最大的客户。他们为一些有老练的投资者提供更多的赚钱机会，包括判断大势走向（例如，卖空）和通过资产的配置组合等。对冲基金管理的全球资产在2002年底就翻了一倍达到1.2万亿美元。虽然此种业务主要还是由美国主导，伦敦的交易量在全球的份额从2002年的10%增加到现在的20%，占欧洲市场的80%。
The City's record over the past two decades has not been an unqualified success. International insurance has been a weak spot, in part because of the travails of Lloyd's of London, a market founded in a coffee house in the 17th century that was hit by 20th-century scandals and huge losses from asbestosis claims. London's share of net premium income in marine insurance, a traditional mainstay of Lloyd's, has shrunk from around 30% in the mid-1980s to 20% in 2005.
金融城在过去的20年也有过不成功的教训。国际保险业显然是它的一个败笔。部分原因归结于伦敦的劳合社在20世纪的商业丑闻及石棉诉讼中的巨额赔偿所遭受的损失。劳合社创建于17世纪的一个咖啡馆，随后发展成为最大的保险公司。它的传统支柱业务，海上保险的保费利润从80年代中期占全球份额的30%下滑到2005年的20%。
Set against that, other less salient parts of the City have been thriving. Shipping services have made a recent comeback; overseas earnings rose by a quarter between 2002 and 2004. London's 400 shipbroking firms match ships and cargoes in 50% of tanker chartering. And there has been a spectacular growth in legal services, which are vital in backing the work of a global financial centre. Over 200 foreign law firms have offices in London, which is also headquarters for three of the four largest firms in the world. Exports from Britain generated by international law firms are now three times higher than they were in 1995.
于此相反的是，过去一些不太引人注意的业务却得到了一些发展。货运服务近期有所反弹，02年至04年间海外的收入增加了25%。伦敦400家船运中介公司所安排的货运业务占全球份额的50%。法律相关的服务也有长足的增长，这对维持全球金融中心的地位提供了良好的保证。200多家的法律公司在伦敦有自己的办公室，其中3/4的全球最大法律公司有在此设立总部。这些公司在伦敦对国外提供的法律服务也比1995年增加了2倍。
Centre court “中心效应”
London is a textbook example of an economic cluster, in which businesses locate close to one another because they gain from proximity. “The big warehouse of markets is in London,” says Pascal Boris, chief executive of BNP Paribas's British operation. The distinctive feature of the City cluster is the pre-eminence of foreign financial firms. In this sense, London has become to finance what Wimbledon is to tennis: a place where the best international players come to compete.
伦敦是规模经济效应的一个范例，从事相同业务的公司由于彼此相邻而受益。“伦敦就象一个巨大的商业大卖场”法国巴黎银行（BNP Panbas）英国地区的CEO Pascal Boris这么说。金融城的优势在于拥有众多著名的国外银行。从这点来说，伦敦与金融的关系，就象温布尔顿与网球的关系，为各国好手提供了一个同场竞技的舞台。
Yet modern communications and information technology allow people and businesses to operate from virtually anywhere nowadays. And there are obvious disadvantages in locating at the heart of a metropolis. Property costs are extremely high in London by international standards. Public transport is overcrowded and often unreliable.
如今，现代的通讯手段和先进的高科技允许人们在实际上的任何地方做交易。这样来说，在繁华大都市的中心设立公司就有明显的不利因素。伦敦的房价昂贵。公共交通系统拥堵且不准时。
The City's vibrancy shows that it offers compelling advantages that outweigh these drawbacks. Financial firms cluster in London because they derive external economies of scale. By thronging together, they create large, liquid markets that drive down trading costs and reduce risks by allowing large deals to be handled.
金融城的活力为在此设立的公司提供了无法比拟的优势。在伦敦的金融机构受益于彼此产生的“聚集效应”。通过邻近的办公地点，创造了巨大的流动市场，从而降低了交易成本，减少了大宗交易的风险。
There are further benefits from locating in the cluster. Firms, large and small, can call upon all the external services needed to put together a complex financial deal, such as advice from lawyers and accountants, or the use of specialist markets. This in turn creates a fertile environment for innovation to flourish—a vital attraction for a global financial centre.
公司的聚集还有其他优势。驻扎此地的大小公司当需要进行较为复杂的金融交易时，可以方便地找到相关的人才，例如律师和会计师，或是其他专业人士。人才的聚集为创新提供了良好的外部环境——这也是全球金融中心的优势所在。
Underpinning the hub is access to talent. Firms locating in London can tap into a huge specialist financial workforce drawn from both domestic and foreign sources. “It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says Mr Boris. “If you want to be hired you go to where people will hire you: London is this magnet in Europe.”
支撑金融中心的基础来自于它的人才资源。在伦敦的公司可以很容易地找到规模庞大的国内外专业金融人士群体。“这里可以实现自我的抱负”Boris先生说“如果你想要到合适的地方工作的话，在欧洲，伦敦就是首选之地。”
A continuing tradition of “light-touch” regulation has proved to be another essential ingredient. In 1997 the new Labour government announced reforms to replace what had become an untidy muddle of statutory and self-regulatory bodies with one regulator. This offered the advantage of a single port of call for the City's big financial conglomerates, but held the risk that they might get unduly caught up in rules to protect the individual consumer. In 2004 the Financial Services Authority responded by introducing a separate division for wholesale and institutional markets, headed by Hector Sants, previously an investment banker. “We recognise,” says Mr Sants, “that good regulation is a key component of a successful marketplace.” The FSA is now highlighting the need for regulation to be based on principles rather than detailed prescriptions.
有着传统的“宽松”的监管规则也是它的另一个秘诀。1997年，工党政府对混乱的法规及各种的行业自律组织进行了改革，合并为统一的监管机构。这有利于对金融城的大型金融机构的监管，但也容易引发对个人消费者的过度保护。2004年，英国金融服务监管局（FSA），组成了一个单独的部门，任命了前投资银行家Hector Sants作为负责人，专门处理批发及机构投资者的市场。“我们认为”，Sants先生说，“良好的监管是市场成功的一个重要因素。”金融服务监管局(FSA)强调监管的目的在于对基本规则的把握，而不是设置繁琐的条款。
But if the FSA has seen the light, European directives that pay insufficient heed to the City's unique position increasingly tie the regulator's hands. These absorb 85% of the FSA's policy time, says Mr Sants, who sounds a cool note about the worth of the latest directive—on markets in financial instruments—for the City. Against this background, Mr Lascelles gives the FSA grudging praise: “It's not so much that it has been good but that it has been less bad than elsewhere.”
如果英国金融监管局（FSA）找到了一些监管的窍门的话，他们的欧洲同行还没有理解到金融城地位的独特地位，监管过于严厉。Sants先生说“我们花了85%的时间来研究制订相关的政策”，看来他对最近出台的政策（针对金融工具）相当重视。在这种情况下，Lascelles先生给了英国金融监管局（FSA）颇为勉强的赞扬：“虽然他们做的不算好，但也不比其他地方来的差。”
America's ability to score regulatory own goals continues to help the City. The Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, passed after the collapse of Enron in order to stiffen up corporate governance, has put off foreign companies from listing there. The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has been the big beneficiary. Foreign firms have flocked to list on its main market and AIM, a less regulated market that it established in 1995.
美国对本国市场严格的监管有利于伦敦金融城的发展，安然公司的倒闭事件促使美国通过萨班尼斯-奥克斯莱法案，以加强对公司的监管，这也吓跑了一些想在美国上市的外国企业。伦敦股市因此而受益。外国公司蜂拥而至，在其主板市场或AIM上市。AIM建立于1995年，是一个监管相对较宽松的证券市场。
In an ironic coda to Big Bang, which saw the stock-exchange's member firms gobbled up by foreign owners, the LSE—since 2001 a listed company itself—is under siege from NASDAQ, an American exchange, which already owns 25% of its shares. Tellingly, the government's only worry about the deal is that it could lead to a back-door introduction of heavy-handed American-style regulation—a threat it will block through a change in the law. That apart, it is unfazed by the prospect of this citadel of British capitalism falling to a foreign predator.
伦敦证券市场正面临着“大变革”之后一个戏剧性的结局：由于伦敦股票交易所在2001年自身已经上市，美国的股市那斯达克（NASDAQ）正虎视眈眈地盯着它，并已经获得了它的25%股份。显然地，政府担心的是如果交易成功，将会导致引进美国式的严厉监管方式——英国政府可能会修改法律来阻止此项交易。此外，这个英国资本主义的堡垒落入外国人的囊中倒不是件让人担忧的事。
London's success as the Wimbledon of international finance is now such that New York is trying to fight back. Michael Bloomberg, its mayor, has called in McKinsey, a management consultancy, for advice. But Mr Bloomberg will find it difficult to alter America's regulatory approach. Lawmakers in Washington, DC, are generally swayed by domestic rather than international concerns.
纽约，作为后起之秀，想要赶超伦敦的金融中心地位。纽约市长Michael Bloomberg已经请来管理咨询公司麦肯锡做为其战略咨询的顾问，但他也无法改变美国的监管法规。在华盛顿的国会议员们制订法律考虑到更多的是国内势力，而不怎么关心国际上的反响。
Some recent talk about London has smacked of hubris, confusing its success as a financial centre with the favourable cyclical conditions that investors and traders have been enjoying. That froth will be skimmed away by tighter money and a slowing world economy.
近来伦敦弥漫着一种骄傲的情绪，夹杂在良好声誉之中，不过随着放缓的世界经济增长及央行的紧缩性货币政策，自满的资本将会慢慢消失。
However, the City will be hard to dislodge as a financial hub. Sir David Walker, who worked behind the scenes in the early 1980s to reform the stock exchange and is now a senior adviser to Morgan Stanley, an American bank, gives warning against complacency but says: “Over time a virtuous circle, supported by sensible regulation, has developed to such an extent that London is more than a network: it's become a knot and it's very difficult to disentangle a knot.”
不管这样，伦敦很难失去作为金融中心的地位。曾任1980年代“大变革”的策划人之一，现是摩根斯坦利的高级顾问，David Walker对伦敦的自满提出了警告,但他还是说：“经过长时间的历史沉淀，加上明智的监管规则，才造就如今伦敦的地位，伦敦不仅仅是一个金融的网络，更象一个’结’,要解开这样的一个结是相当困难的。”
[ 本帖最后由 shiyi18 于 2006-10-30 08:59 编辑 ] |
-
1
评分人数
-
|
新手必读
ECO 招聘启事
积累
现金
本周之星
奖励译文
发表于 2006-10-25 17:17
| 
发表于 2006-10-25 17:50
| 
发表于 2006-10-26 00:35
| 