The Barclays approach to ABN Amro has a certain panache. It is curious to see what would be the world’s fifth largest financial institution being cobbled together in a couple of days – perhaps that is due to the underlying uniformity of modern banks.
What is interesting is the ‘regulator shopping’. ABN Barclays will be incorporated in the UK and its primary listing will be on the London Stock Exchange. But it proposes that the De Nederlandsche Bank should be its primary regulator. This is apparently, and not surprisingly, not much to the liking of the Financial Services Authority. Should a business incorporated and listed and with a large slice of its interests in one jurisdiction, simply be allowed to appoint its regulator by moving its nominal headquarters elsewhere?
