Brexit leaves finance sector in limbo
The UK's financial services sector has been left in limbo despite the 11th-hour trade deal on goods struck between London and Brussels just before the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31.
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Mr Glen firmly rejects this and insists the UK financial services will adhere to the highest possible standards, although he accepts that Brexit has opened up the possibility for the sector "to do things differently in the future".But he told the Sunday Times: "The integrity and the reputation of London in financial services is not going to be enhanced by rapid deregulation or reckless short-termism."What we want is a model of structure and cooperation with the EU that allows us to maintain that stability and mutual market access."However, Mairead McGuinness, the EU's financial services chief, has warned that the UK's financial sector, which employs about 2.3 million people and accounts for ten per cent of GDP, will never again have the same access to the bloc, and has called on the EU to develop its own capital market to cut reliance on the City of London.The fact that financial services were not included in the last-minute trade deal between the UK and EU has been roundly criticised, not least by Theresa May, the former prime minister.Speaking in the House of Commons last week, she said that the failure of Boris Johnson's to get a post-Brexit financial services agreement was a massive blow to the UK economy.She said that, in her speech at the Mansion House in 2018, she laid out her ambitions for a post-Brexit agreement, including outline plans for a financial services deal that would be "truly ground breaking”.But she added: “It would have been but, sadly, it has not been achieved. We have a deal in trade which benefits the EU, but not a deal in services that would have benefited the UK.“The arrangement treaty is clear that future negotiation on these points is possible and I hope the government will go to the negotiations with alacrity and vigour, particularly on financial services.”
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