Claim d964f1afChecked 21 Jul 2026
TrueOn the truth scale
“In the Eighties and Nineties, London was becoming in many ways a genuine global centre for creating profits.”
Reasoning & Evidence21 Jul 2026
The claim is broadly well-supported by extensive evidence from primary and academic sources. The Bank of England's own 1989 Quarterly Bulletin documents London's position as a global financial centre, noting that international assets of banks in the UK grew from $184 billion in 1975 to $1,124 billion in 1988, and that the banking, finance, insurance, and business services sector's share of GDP grew sharply from about 10.6% in 1975 to 19.5% in 1988. The 1986 "Big Bang" deregulation of the London Stock Exchange is widely credited as a pivotal moment that transformed the City, enabling the arrival of global financial conglomerates and making London a leading international financial centre. Academic sources from Cambridge and Oxford confirm that during the 1980s and 1990s, London thrived as a global hub for investment banking, securities trading, and financial innovation, with the "Anglo-American" model of competition, low taxes, and performance-related compensation underpinning growth. London maintained its position despite challenges from Tokyo in the late 1980s and Frankfurt in the 1990s (particularly after the euro's introduction). Net overseas earnings of UK financial institutions grew from £1.0 billion in 1975 to £7.4 billion in 1988, demonstrating substantial profit generation.
The claim is somewhat broad and uses soft qualifiers ("in many ways," "genuine global centre"), but the core factual assertion — that London became a significant global centre for financial activity and profit creation during the 1980s and 1990s — is accurate and well-corroborated.
Sources: Bank of England, "London as an international financial centre" (Quarterly Bulletin, 1989), https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/quarterly-bulletin/1989/london-as-an-international-financial-centre.pdf; Cambridge University Press, "Big Bang in the City of London: an intentional revolution or an accident?" (Financial History Review), https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/financial-history-review/article/big-bang-in-the-city-of-london-an-intentional-revolution-or-an-accident/BA85A853A5A07EF6FD8F5C31AA50D804; Oxford Academic, "The City and Financial Services: Historical Perspectives on the Brexit Debate," https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923x.12624; Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, "London's Big Bang in International Context," https://g-city.sass.org.cn/_upload/article/files/0f/cd/5f96eddf40f8b95552fb106e5fca/95f917f1-872f-40d5-90c9-e772e72d24c4.pdf
From article
The pressure of being a market-maker in a busy market, when you’ve got people all around you screaming and shouting at you and you’re dealing in numbers and it’s like that, that, that, that – that’s pretty pressurised. That’s why it’s a young man’s job. You don’t get many 50-year-old money-brokers: they can’t do it any more. Goodness me! It’s not an easy job. Not an easy job.
When I joined the City, it was the dying days of a gentlemen’s club: magnificent, socially wonderful but going nowhere – there was still a whiff of P G Wodehouse about people who toddled off to the City all day and did things that nobody understood at all. But what I saw in the Eighties and Nineties was London becoming in many ways a genuine global centre for entrepreneurial flair, for innovation, for very hard work – and for creating profits. And without those profits we can’t have the schools and hospitals we need in this country – it’s very, very simple. I am absolutely not conflicted in any way at all about the fact that what we did, overall, was for a social good.
Sources opened
| [1] | bankofengland.co.uk |
| [2] | cambridge.org |
| [3] | doi.org |
| [4] | cambridge.org |
| [5] | doi.org |
| [6] | cambridge.org |
| [7] | g-city.sass.org.cn |