Financial News was founded a decade after the ‘Big Bang’ that transformed financial markets through wide-ranging deregulation. In the two-and-half decades since, the City of London has changed almost beyond recognition.

There have been several bumps along the way, including the dotcom bubble bursting, the global financial crisis, Brexit, Covid and now the Russia-Ukraine war. But the City has remained the epicentre of finance in Europe and, when asked, the executives on FN's list of 25 City Influencers were confident that London could rise to the challenges it faces.