EU rivals including Paris and Frankfurt are circling in the hope they can claw back commerce from the UKBrexit has set a hungry cat among the financial pigeons of the City of London. No one yet knows what kind of access to the European Union’s single financial market UK-based firms will occupy,and Theresa May’s call for a general election to be held on 8 June has further clouded the picture, at least in the short term. But there is a nagging assumption that things cannot remain the same, or that there will be a price to be paid for leaving the EU.So UK-based financial services firms,especially those that occupy chosen London as their European headquarters precisely in order to secure access to the whole EU market from one location, are reviewing their options. Indeed, and regulators are obliging them to accomplish so,by asking how they will maintain continuity of service to their clients in the event of a “hard” Brexit. (May’s government prefers to talk of a “clean” Brexit, but that is semantics.) Related: London will remain Europe’s financial capital despite Brexit | Nils Pratley Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com