Crisis and opportunity: The policy environment of international banking in the city of London, 1958-1980

This chapter analyses policy responses to the instability of the international monetary system during the 1970s and how these policies affected the City of London. First, the collapse of the international monetary system through the 1960s and then the increased risk to the financial market in the 1970s accelerated the pace of financial innovation. Second, as currency speculation grew, policymakers were reluctant to relax controls on the flow of capital, and this had important implications for London's competitiveness. The debate between the state, academics, and bankers over the desirability of floating exchange rates is surveyed in this chapter. The era of floating exchange rates and inflation prompted an international and domestic banking crisis in 1974 that drew the Bank of England into more active attempts at prudential supervision.