Britain’s bankers may have assumed this time last year that Rishi Sunak, formerly of Goldman Sachs, was one of their own. As chancellor and then Prime Minister, he’s pursued a deregulatory agenda – the “Edinburgh Reforms” – that many in the City welcome, but for financiers, this week’s U-turn on net-zero policies is another matter.
The City is not known for its tree-hugging politics – British banks still finance fossil fuels projects to the tune of tens of billions of pounds a year – but if there is one principle that unites bankers worldwide, it is this: risk is expensive. Uncertainty of any kind is a cost, and political uncertainty is one of the big ones.
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