While there have been numerous reports of companies moving their exchange business to Europe or Asia due to less stringent regulations there, it has now become apparent that financial services firms are doing the same, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Thus, former New York Attorney General and current New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is backing a new McKinsey report calling for less regulation.
Spitzer joined New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) in doing so.
It certainly marked an about-face for Spitzer, who was largely elected governor of the state due to his crusades on Wall Street.
Specifically, Spitzer admitted that the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance and accounting act has been stifling the financial markets in the U.S.
The report said that should more financial services firms move to Europe and Asia, it would cost the economy $15 billion to $30 billion in annual revenue and the loss of 30,000 to 60,000 jobs.
“It’s a welcome development that he’s stepped forward to be identified with these issues of competitiveness,” said Hal Scott, director of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, which issued a similar report last year.
