Michael Bloomberg: Brexit is stupidest thing any country has done besides Trump

Exclusive: Billionaire media mogul says it is hard to understand why a country doing so well wanted to ruin it

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire media mogul and former mayor of New York, has said Brexit is the single stupidest thing any country has ever done apart from the election of Donald Trump as US president.

Bloomberg argued that it is really hard to understand why a country that was doing so well wanted to ruin it with the Brexit vote, in a series of outspoken remarks made at a technology conference in Boston a fortnight ago.

At that event, Bloomberg, 75, also warned that some workers at the financial media company that bears his name were asking to leave the UK and US because they think the two countries no longer like immigrants and are no longer welcoming.

The CEO was in London on Tuesday to open a new European headquarters for Bloomberg in the City, covering 1.3 hectares (3.2 acres). But his earlier remarks, unearthed the same day, suggested he had regrets about making the investment decision because of the Brexit vote.

We are opening a brand new European headquarters in London two big, expensive buildings. Would I have done it if I knew they were going to drop out? Ive had some thoughts that maybe I wouldnt have, but we are there, we are going to be very happy.

My former wife was a Brit, my daughters have British passports, so we love England its the father of our country, I suppose. But what they are doing is not good and there is no easy way to get out of it because if they dont pay a penalty, everyone else would drop out. So they cant get as good of a deal as they had before.

He added: I did say that I thought it was the single stupidest thing any country has ever done but then we Trumped it.

Bloomberg employs 4,000 staff in the UK and 20,000 worldwide, and the New York-based firm has long made the country its headquarters in Europe. But he said some staff were becoming unhappy about London as a key location.

One of the things that is hurting us both in the United States and in the UK is that we have employees, not a lot but some, who are starting to say: I dont want to work here can we transfer to some place else? This country doesnt like immigrants, Bloomberg said.

All this talk in Washington words have consequences. Whether we change the immigration laws or not, there is general feeling around the world that America is no longer an open, welcoming place and a lot of people dont want to go there, and the same thing is happening in the UK because of Brexit.

Bloomberg first made the comments about Brexit at the little-reported HUBweek conference in Boston less than two weeks ago and then repeated his quip about Brexit and Trump at an event in France on Monday.

It is really hard to understand why a country that was doing so well wanted to ruin it, Bloomberg said of Brexit. It was not a smart thing to do and getting out of it is going to be very difficult and is going to be very painful. It will hurt industries. People are already taking space in other cities over there [Europe], us included.

On his visit to London, Bloomberg was more circumspect. Giving a speech next to Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, Bloomberg insisted his company was strongly committed to London.

He added: Whatever London and the UKs relationship to the EU proves to be, Londons language, timezone, talent, infrastructure and culture all position it to grow as a global capital for years to come. We are very optimistic about Londons future and we are really excited to be a part of it.

Bloomberg is worth an estimated $47.5bn (36.2bn) according to Forbes and was given an honorary knighthood in 2015. He was a Republican mayor of New York between 2002 and 2013 before he reassumed his position as chief executive of Bloomberg.

Bloomberg considering standing as a third-party candidate in the 2016 US presidential election but eventually ruled it out, saying that if he stood it could diminish the Democratic vote and lead to the election of Trump. That is not a risk I can take in good conscience, Bloomberg said in March 2016 when he confirmed his decision not to stand.

His criticism of Brexit included hitting out at the leave campaign and its claims that Britain had problems with immigration and too much EU regulation. Bloomberg described comments from Boris Johnson that the EU rules meant there had to be at least four bananas in a bunch as fictitious and said on immigration that Britain didnt take anyone from northern Africa or the Middle East.

He added: They didnt have an immigration problem and they didnt need control of their borders. They have the English Channel that gave them control of their borders.

Bloomberg said London was the centre of Europe but warned that was not going to be as true any more due to Brexit.

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HSBC chief sounds alarm over financial regulation and Brexit

UKs biggest bank reports big rise in profits to $10.2bn as outgoing chairman Douglas Flint calls for global regulation to keep markets safe

The outgoing chairman of Britains biggest bank, HSBC, called for an overhaul of the system to tackle financial crime as he sounded the alarm over attempts to fragment global financial regulation, and the impact of Brexit.

His warning came as HSBC reported a 5% rise in first half profits to $10.2bn (7.8bn) and announced a $2bn share buy-back, taking the total amount returned to shareholders since the second half of 2016 to $5.5bn.

Douglas Flint who has been at HSBC for 22 years and chairman for the last six years used his last statement at the bank to call for the rules designed since the financial crisis to be implemented globally, and also warned on the impact of Brexit on Europes financial markets.

A divergence in regulation runs the risk of skewing financial market activity to where the rules are less onerous, while the discussions over the UKs departure from the EU will be complex and time-consuming.

The essential questions that have to be addressed are whether, at the conclusion of the negotiations, the economies of Europe will continue to have access to at least the same amount of financing capacity and related risk management services, and as readily available and similarly priced, as they have enjoyed with the UK as part of the EU, he said.

The City is focused on HSBCs attempts to clean up its business after a series of scandals about the tax avoidance strategies used by its Swiss arm and the 1.2bn fine for money laundering by the US Department of Justice, which led to a monitor being installed at the bank as part of a deferred prosecution agreement.

The American lawyer Michael Cherkasky was appointed as the monitor five years ago and his concerns have prompted an investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority into potential breaches of money laundering rules.

Flint said there need to be increased cooperation to route out bad actors.

What is…. clear is that greater cooperation between the public and private sectors, together with a refresh of bank secrecy laws and regulation designed for a different age, would significantly increase the effectiveness of our joint efforts, he said.

Douglas Flint Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings. Photograph: Jill Mead for the Guardian

Among the ideas he endorsed was a mandatory register of beneficial ownership of corporate and other non-personal structures in every country.

HSBCs results were accompanied by pages of legal warnings, including a legal case which began in April 2017 into allegations that it conspired with other banks to manipulate the the US bond market. There are other disclosures covering requests for information relating to the Mossack Fonseca files, investigations by tax authorities and its cooperating with the DoJ over the way it packaged up toxic bonds in the run up to the crisis. The investigation by DoJ – which has already reached settlements with eight other banks – is nearing completion.

In the UK, the banks results included a $300m hit for the payment protection insurance scandal. HSBC said it had moved 170,000 accounts to new sort codes to comply with the new ringfencing rules – known as the Vickers rules – which come into force at the start of 2019. Implementing these rules, which ring fence high street bank operations from riskier investment banks, has cost 500m and involved 2,000 staff.

Stuart Gulliver, the banks chief executive, focused on the amount paid out to shareholders in the last year. In the past 12 months we have paid more in dividends than any other European or American bank and returned $3.5bn to shareholders through share buybacks, said Gulliver, who in the financial stages of a global plan to make savings of $5bn, cut 25,000 jobs and pivot the business towards Asia.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us