The federal Assistant Treasurer, Chris Bowen, yesterday told a conference of 100 business leaders in Sydney he would lead an "Olympics-style push" to make the city a financial services hub to rival Hong Kong and Singapore.

Almost a decade ago the Howard government, led by the then financial services minister Joe Hockey, spent $7 million trying to do the same thing.

In 1999 John Howard, Mr Hockey and the then premier, Bob Carr, led a delegation to New York to spruik Sydney's financial services credentials.

In similar style, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, yesterday volunteered his time and language skills to lead a "roadshow" of industry figures to key Asian economies to promote Australia's financial services abilities.

"The Government recognises the enormous export potential of the financial services industry, and is committed to developing policies to establish Australia as a regional financial services hub," Mr Rudd said.

A special unit would be established in Treasury to oversee the plans and the Government would provide six-monthly reports to Parliament on its progress.

The Premier, Morris Iemma, yesterday backed the Federal Government's plan, unveiling designs of his own for Sydney to be "the hub of that hub".

Having recently announced an extra 120,000 square metres of office space would be built at the Hungry Mile, Mr Iemma said his Government would focus on attracting financial companies to fill the space.

He said he hoped to attract financial sector workers from New York and London who would be sacked in the shake-out of the global credit crunch - potentially up to 120,000 workers.

Sydney was attractive as a financial hub because of its highly skilled workforce, its well established financial industry and its location in the Asian time zone.

"The competition isn't Melbourne and Brisbane, Sydney's competition is Hong Kong and Singapore," he said.

The NSW Government would also push for Sydney to become the nation's "carbon trading hub". Already home to Australia's first state-based carbon trading scheme, and the Australian Securities Exchange, Sydney was a natural home for the carbon trading markets and regulators that would be needed to underpin the Federal Government's carbon pollution reduction scheme, Mr Iemma said.

Yesterday's conference was attended by a number of senior business and regulatory figures, including the Reserve Bank's deputy governor, Ric Battellino, the Tax Commissioner, Michael D'Ascenzo, and the head of the competition and consumer watchdog, Graeme Samuel.

A posse of financial sector chief executives also attended. At their urging, the Federal Government has promised to instruct the review of taxes headed by the Treasury Secretary, Ken Henry, to consider abolishing taxes on Australian fund managers who look after foreign money.

The head of the Australian Bankers Association, David Bell, another attendee, said removing the 10 per cent charge on foreign deposits held in Australia would help Australian banks gain better access to liquidity. Banks have recently cited funding constraints as a reason for raising interest rates.

The head of the Investment and Financial Services Association, Richard Gilbert, said 1 to 2 per cent of money held in Australia was from overseas, partly as a result of the federal tax. Abolishing it would boost government revenues because little was raised from the measure now, and any extra funds attracted as a result would increase the profitability of Australian managed funds, and hence the company tax they paid.