The head of Standard Chartered yesterday gave the strongest signal yet that the bank might eventually look to move its base out of London, saying tougher regulation and the levy on banks' balance sheets introduced by the new government was damping the UK's competitiveness.

Peter Sands, chief executive, said the Asia-focused bank did not have any current plans to move its City of London headquarters but admitted that investors had voiced concerns over the UK's attractiveness compared with other markets.

“The arguments for London have weakened relative to other centres,” he said. “Our preferred solution is to stay where we are . . . [but] we don't want to be headquartered in the UK if it represents a significant competitive disadvantage – and there is a danger of that.”