Why our bankers can't afford to live in Geneva

Rich bankers whine about how raising taxes will "force" them to relocate to places such as Switzerland. But that makes no financial sense at all.

Pop down to Waitrose in Bayswater (the nearest one to the natural Notting Hill homes of Britain's bankers) and buy a basket of essentials (milk, bread, a chicken, some pasta, couple of bottles of Medoc and so on) and it will cost you around £40.

Do the same at a co-op in a small town within commuting distance of Geneva, as I did last week, and it will, as it turns out, cost you going on double.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.