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U.K.'s Alarm on $127 Trillion of Derivatives Rebuffed by EU

Dombrovskis sees no broad Brexit threat to financial contracts
Banks should prepare to fix any contract problems, EU says

U.K. GDP Gain Means Only Politics Can Halt BOE Rate Hike — Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

By

Alexander Weber and

July 11, 2018, 1:28 PM UTCUpdated onJuly 11, 2018, 1:59 PM UTC

The Bank of England’s warning that Brexit threatens trillions of pounds of financial contracts is falling on deaf ears in Brussels.

Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Union’s head of financial-services policy, dismissed an alert issued by BOE Governor Mark Carney, who said the U.K.’s withdrawal from the bloc put as much as 96 trillion pounds ($127 trillion) of derivatives contracts at risk. Where Carney called for U.K. and EU authorities to step in, Dombrovskis said the onus is on firms to Brexit-proof existing contracts.