Whatever this weekend brings, it probably won’t top last Sunday when we saw a rather pleased President Macron of France celebrating his nation’s win in the 2018 World Cup. Could this be a preview of the reaction we will see from the ex-investment banker, should he be able to lure financial services activity to Paris?
As Christian Lee commented last week, the UK Government is trending towards a regime of equivalence with the EU, after the now infamous Chequers White Paper. The only problem is, how likely is the UK’s position to swing again?
Whether it be equivalence or hard Brexit, UK firms access to the EU markets is an uncertain topic. But one thing is certain; high profile leaders in the EU, including Macron, want to grow financial services’ revenue on the continent.
That’s why regulators are asking to see banks’ so-called ‘glide paths’: detailed plans of how EU related risk will be repatriated from UK entities over the next six – 30 months. It’s further proof that ‘back-to-back’ models and (empty) shell EU entities will not be allowed for long. And let’s not even start on the topic of remote booking.
Building full trading and risk management capability in a new location is not an easy task, talent in particular can take a long time to build or hire.
As we’ve said before, the best advice we can give banks is: plan for the worst, hope for the best.
Note: This opinion piece was first published by Catalyst prior to the Davies merger
