In case of a no-deal Brexit, bankers fear they will not have access to their biggest market.
The big hurdle they would need to overcome to avoid costly duplication to get access to the market is UK legislation, which they worry might be lagging behind, according to Reuters.
In case of a deal, the financial services sector would still be able to trade in Europe until the end of next year.
If there is no deal when Britain leaves on October 31, the country’s financial sector had hoped that it could rely on the EU’s equivalence system in order to keep trading in the EU.
This would mean that the EU would look into whether or not the UK’s rules are close enough to the ones of the trading bloc.
At the moment, that is the case. However, there are a number of EU laws that are going to snap into action in the coming months that have yet to be passed through the UK parliament, meaning they have not been enshrined in UK law.
The UK’s finance ministry has stated it would ensure that there would be fully functioning services rules in place when the country leaves the EU. Yet, the parliamentary bill to ensure the onshoring of these rules has been delayed and bankers fear that it will not get passed in time.
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