City of London Needs Brexit Limbo to End
The U.K. and Europe busted one Brexit deadline after another hatching a trade deal. March’s target for a finance accord can’t be the next to slip.
British finance has come to the bridge it needs to cross.
Photographer: Jason Alden/BloombergLast month’s Brexit trade deal left a giant loose end — the future of finance, the U.K.’s most valuable export sector. Britain and Europe have given themselves until March to agree on just how closely the U.K's financial regulations will mirror those of the European Union. Negotiations between the two sides have seen deadline after deadline get busted since the Brexit referendum in 2016. The City of London cannot afford a repeat of that now. It needs clarity fast.
In an ambitious-sounding interview with the City A.M. newspaper on Monday, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak highlighted the prospect of a second “Big Bang” for London, referencing the boom after deregulation in 1986, without really explaining what that might entail. As things stand, the City is suspended in a no-deal Brexit outcome without knowing which way to turn.