UK finance watchdog looks to relax rules to boost London listings

Changes are aimed to attract high quality, growth' firms such as biotech companies

The City watchdog is proposing to relax London's stock market rules in an attempt to attract more fast-growing startups instead of losing out to other financial centres such as New York, Paris and Frankfurt.

The Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) proposals would mean scrapping the current two-tier system, where firms decide whether to follow looser rules of a so-called standard listing, or the more rigorous standards of a premium listing.