世界金融中心—伦敦

　　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规模效应。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，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。”