Incoming Lord Mayor shares his vision

Sheriff and Lord Mayor-elect Nicholas Lyons shared his vision for his year as Lord Mayor with fellow WCI members during the recent Master's Series online briefing.

 

He told members that his year's theme of ‘Financing Our Future’ will highlight the need to support infrastructure investment, green finance, investment in technology and financial literacy and inclusion, the latter a topic he clearly feels passionately about.

 

The event was hosted by Senior Warden Nick Dunlop. He explored a wide range of issues with Sheriff Lyons, who urged the insurance sector to play its part in promoting the City as it was “time for the City to step up and show what it can do for the country”.

 

“We shouldn’t hide our light under bushel. We should talk more about the financial purpose of insurance”, he said.

 

This meant the industry had to do some things better, pointing to the “sloppy wordings” that caused businesses so many problems with their business interruption cover during the pandemic: “Contract certainty has been an issue for as long as I have been involved and really is something we should get right”.

 

He was also critical of regulators who have been too restrictive in their approach, saying competitiveness should be a primary and not a secondary objective of regulators. Regulators could also help promote a more “risk retentive” approach which could, in turn, play a part in making the country more productive.

 

He said many of his ideas would be fed into the creation of a new ‘Vision 2030’ plan for the City which would set out a series of multi-year objectives.