On Friday, City minister and economist Bim Afolami told the City A.M’s podcast, Bonds & Ballots, that regulators and ministers are responsible for aiming stock market attractiveness toward young investors. Afolami suggested that the market depends on the critical decisions of young investors who can choose to back either cryptocurrency investments or retail stocks.
City minister urges investors to back the UK stock market
Most notably, Afolami noted that investors would be wise to invest in NatWest (LON: NWG) shares, arguing that the relationship bank is a worthy investment with savings automatically enrolled and invested into the British stock market.
After two recent share sales, the British government’s stake in NatWest is approximately 37%. The government saved NatWest from bankruptcy during the 2008 financial crash, and the state has been feeding back shares into the market.
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In an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, Afolami addressed the burgeoning crypto-market and its hold over young stock traders:
That’s one of the things that I want to change – to say, don’t just own crypto, own a share of NatWest, don’t just own crypto, invest with your savings through automatic enrollment, invest in Britain, the British stock market. That is the shift that we need to see.
In 2023, newly listed Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) sunk to a 13-year low on the London Stock Exchange. The market saw a 49% plummet in new listings, with only 23 firms issuing IPOs, compared to the 45 registered in 2022.
