Minister for investment Johnson: 'We want to work with wealth sector to mould regulations effectively'
Dominic Johnson (pictured), minister of investment
In a speech to delegates at Investment Week's Leaders Summit, Johnson looked back on his career over three decades in financial services, including working in Hong Kong for Jardine Fleming, heading the marketing for Lloyd George Asset Management and co-founding Somerset Capital Management in 2007.
He said he knew from experience how difficult it is running a wealth management business, including how hard it is to give advice and direction, and then invest capital.
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«I see it as my job as the investment minister, but also the job of the government, to make your life as easy as possible,» he told delegates.
«This is both to relieve the burdens on your business, to enable you to perform the functions, grow and be prosperous, and generate great wealth for yourselves as stakeholders in your companies, but also help you in terms of the regulatory frameworks to enable you to give good advice and make good capital allocation decisions on behalf of your customers.»
However, Johnson identified his biggest challenge is working with different departments across government to respond to the sector's needs and a huge part of his job is trying to get Whitehall officials «to look at their activities through the lens of the investor».
«It means I have to go department to department and explain often why well-intentioned actions will cause friction for investors,» he said.
He said it is crucial the wealth sector is successful as otherwise the UK will not achieve the ambitions of the prime minister to become a science and technology superpower, adding the government is firmly behind sectors that are
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