Britain should now brace itself for a barrage of Brussels red tape

Should we be worried that the UK didn’t get all that it wanted for financial services in the UK-EU Trade deal, as the PM mentioned to the Sunday Telegraph? Financial services are our biggest export industry by some margin, including to the EU, as well as (arguably) our biggest taxpayer, so anything that hampers it could have serious economic repercussions. The EU for its part has said that it will consider in its own time if it will grant ‘equivalence’ to UK financial services, making it easier for UK based institutions to serve customers in the EU, and will only do so if it is in the EU’s interest. The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has already unilaterally granted EU equivalence status, providing continuity for EU financial services companies operating here.

The truth is that the biggest threat to our financial services industry is not whether the EU grants equivalence. As chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association at the time of the Brexit referendum, I co-ordinated the negotiations between UK financial services companies, the UK government, the European Commission and the European Council, and it soon became clear that there are enough legal mechanisms for UK based financial services companies to carry on serving their clients in the EU whatever was in the final trade deal, or indeed no deal.