Might be something in the water! Or is it just the regulations?

Employees on Wall Street are much more aware of the regulatory compliance culture and electronic monitoring of their email than their counterparts in London. But they are also more likely than their English colleagues to try and get around the controls.

That's the finding of a new study by Orchestria, an outfit that specialises in confidential data protection.

According to the study, more than six out of 10 Wall Street employees thought that it was ok that their employer monitor their e-mail. In London, it was fewer than four out of 10 (38 per cent).

But at the same time, New Yorkers are more likely to try to circumvent e-mail monitoring with 60 per cent admitting that they had sent something that they "didn't want their employer to know about" using webmail, well ahead of the 42 per cent of Londoners who had done the same. And more than seven out of ten New York-based finance workers admitted they had received an e-mail that broke corporate or regulatory policies, compared to just 36 per cent of London City employees.

Wall Street employees face the heaviest scrutiny. In New York, 74 per cent of respondents who worked in the finance sector thought their e-mail was already monitored, versus 62% of London finance workers.

All grist for the mill in the debate now going on about the issues of the different regulatory environments.



New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and Senator Charles Schumer have called for changes to stop New York losing its pre-eminence.

And London's mayor Ken Livingstone, on a visit to New York, summed up London's economic strategy in two words: "Sarbanes-Oxley".

Not that London, which is exempt from more stringent regulations, is necessarily a safer place to put your money. But we can expect some of the debate to develop along those lines.