Over a thousand EU financial firms plan to open British offices post-Brexit

‘Despite’ Brexit more than a thousand banks, asset managers, payments companies and insurers currently located inside the European Union plan to open offices in Britain after Brexit to allow them to continue serving UK clients, all of this according to the regulatory consultancy Bovill said on Monday.

The new offices and staff will be set to help offset the loss of business going the other way as the current mechanisms for trade between the EU and the UK from December this year. The first step from companies, who until now have been able to serve UK customers directly from their home base have applied for temporary permission to operate in Britain after January 31st.  Bovill is basing its findings on figures that they obtained from Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority. Michael Johnson, a consultant at Bovill has said “These figures clearly show that many firms see the UK as Europe’s premier financial services hub”.  

 A recent survey from New Financial think tank says that over 300 financial firms in Britain have opened EU hubs to continue serving clients in the EU after Brexit. According to EY Firms are now carefully watching negotiations on Britain’s future relationship with the EU. Britain’s finance minister Sajid Javid told the Financial Times over the weekend that future EU access would be under the bloc’s “equivalence” system, a basic form of access used by the United States, Singapore and Japan.

Omar Ali, EY’s UK financial services leader has said, on the equivalence system: “For many, the equivalence would provide much-needed certainty, but it is a complex framework with over 40 provisions, which is not guaranteed long term, and means different things to different firms”.  Bovill has said 228 firms from Ireland had applied for temporary permission to keep serving UK clients until they obtain full authorisation for a new UK hub. Bovill also said: “In practical terms, these figures mean that European firms will be buying office space, hiring staff and engaging legal and professional advisers in the UK”. Firms from France, Cyprus and Germany have applied for 170, 165 and 149 temporary permissions respectively, the consultancy has said.

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