The Lord Mayor of London, Alastair King, will tonight (15 July) deliver a speech at the annual Financial and Professional Services Dinner held at The Mansion House to an audience of senior political figures and business leaders from the financial and professional services sectors.
The Lord Mayor will speak alongside the Chancellor of the Exchequer the Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP and the Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey.
Lord Mayor of London, Alastair King, will say (please check against delivery):
“Looking ahead, our goal is to make the Mansion House Accord (*1) self-sustaining. The City Corporation and the government can convene and encourage, but real reform must be owned and delivered by industry.
“An example of this, is that today we have unveiled the Employer Pension Pledge – a voluntary commitment by employers to make a public commitment to consider overall value for money, rather than solely cost, when reviewing or selecting pension providers.
“The Pledge is a signal of leadership, acknowledging that the questions employers ask, and the principles they apply, shape the outcomes their employees will one day retire on.
“I am pleased to announce that the Pledge has now been signed by over 20 of the United Kingdom’s largest employers, covering over half a million employees and more than a million savers, including Tesco.
“Several more British employers are currently reviewing the terms of the Pledge, and I hope and expect many more companies will join this movement before long.
“My message to all British employers tonight is this, the direction of travel is clear; you can lead the way, or you can get left behind. This is the moment to show you care not just about your employees’ present, but also their future. I urge all those companies who have not yet signed this Pledge to do so without delay.”
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“While the financial and professional services sector is the driver of our economy, I would argue that we have been on autopilot for too long. My former boss, Christine Lagarde, once said that ‘the financial industry is a service industry…and it should serve others before it serves itself.’
“With the Office for Budget Responsibility’s warning of the ‘daunting’ risks to the public finances from rising debt ringing in our ears, we need to accept that sustainable growth cannot come from the public purse alone.
“If we are going to obtain new jobs and growth and achieve better outcomes for long-term savers and pensioners, we need the government, the regulators, and the financial and professional services sector to come with us.
“I am calling on major employers to step up, back their workers, and sign the Employer Pension Pledge. And I am calling on the government to keep building on the Leeds Reforms to unleash new growth.”
(*1) Seventeen of the largest workplace pension providers in the UK have agreed to invest at least 10% of their defined contribution (DC) default funds in private markets by 2030, with 5% of the total allocated to the UK.
The voluntary initiative, to be known as the Mansion House Accord, has been jointly led by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) and the Corporation. It is aimed at securing better financial outcomes for DC savers through the higher potential net returns available in private markets.
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