Could Brexit benefit Britain’s financial services?

Now that the EU has agreed to move Brexit negotiations on to a trade deal there will be much focus on financial services. An industry which produces annual revenues of £200 billion, accounts for 7 per cent of UK GDP and employs 1.1 million people is going to be a crucial part of any deal which Britain does with the EU, yet it is one to which other EU nations have long turned a greedy eye. In December, the House of Lords European Union Committee claimed that 75,000 jobs in financial services could be lost to other EU countries or to other countries. Not everyone, however, has been so pessimistic. In July accountants PWC and theCityUK, a group which represents City firms, claimed that Brexit could benefit the UK financial sector to the tune of £43 billion a year – assuming that the government took advantage of the opportunity to change the regulatory regime, and reformed the visa system to make it easier to employ talent.