The banks abandon Project Fear

Three senior bankers from Barclays, J.P. Morgan and Citi descended on the House of Commons today to give evidence to the Treasury Select Committee on the impact of a No Deal Brexit. Their interview must have seemed like perfect timing for Chancellor Philip Hammond, who is currently doing his own tour of the Commons and is expected to drum up support for Chequers by stoking fears of the calamitous impact of No Deal

Unfortunately for Hammond, the three bankers were not nearly as morose as the Treasury could have hoped for. Instead they said the risks of No Deal were comparable to the instability they regularly faced across the world.

James Bardrick, Head of Citi UK said:

‘As an industry we are actually used, we operate in 160 countries around the world, we are physically present in a 100 and I can tell you there has never been a time in my 30 plus years in the organisation where there hasn’t been something quite dramatic going on as change.’