How to revive Britain's flagging stockmarket

The financial regulator is proposing new rules to raise the number of firms going public. It should be more radical, says Matthew Lynn.

Patisserie Valerie cakes
The rules couldn’t prevent Patisserie Valerie turning stale
(Image credit: © Alamy)

No one would deny that the rules governing what companies can list on the stockmarket, and on what conditions, were in need of radical reform.

Over almost three decades, regulators have tightened and tightened the rules. The aim was to protect investors and make equity investment safer for ordinary people. As is so often the case with regulation, however, it has had unintended consequences. In this case, the number of listings has fallen dramatically.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.