EU Digs In Over Banks’ Post-Brexit Access, But Divisions Emerge
- EU proposal is based on unilateral equivalence system
- Ambiguity in wording of draft reflects internal debate in EU
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The European Union is preparing to offer the U.K. a bare bones deal for its banks after Brexit, even as divisions are starting to emerge within the bloc about how harshly to treat the City.
According to the latest draft of the EU’s negotiating stance, the bloc will consider offering the U.K. “improved equivalence” for its financial services. That means the EU will only let U.K. banks access its market for as long as it considers British rules to be equivalent to the bloc’s. It’s an unstable arrangement as the EU can rescind it at short notice, and Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond has called it "wholly inadequate."