The UK is pushing for closer financial services links with the European Union following their breakthrough on Northern Ireland, which has unlocked the prospect of progress on the issue.
(Bloomberg) — The UK is pushing for closer financial services links with the European Union following their breakthrough on Northern Ireland, which has unlocked the prospect of progress on the issue.
Treasury minister Andrew Griffith will make the case for greater cooperation during a visit on Thursday to Berlin, according to a statement from the Treasury. Griffith is due to meet German banking chiefs and financial services executives on the pre-planned visit.
The pact on Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements, known as the Windsor Framework, “shows what we can achieve when we put our minds together,” Griffith is due to say. “The Treasury stands ready to continue conversations with our European partners on enhancing regulatory cooperation.”
Further post-Brexit cooperation on financial services has been on ice due to the trade dispute over Northern Ireland. Now there is optimism on both sides that a memorandum of understanding setting out a framework for regulatory cooperation and a joint forum for discussing rules may be unlocked, after previously being agreed to but not signed.
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Griffith will also pledge Britain won’t put European financial stability at risk, saying the government does not intend to “deregulate for the sake of deregulation.”
The minister is scheduled to visit other European capitals in the coming weeks and months, the Treasury said.
Financial services were excluded from the post-Brexit trade deal that came into effect at the start of 2021, meaning London-based firms have had to move billions of dollars of assets and thousands of staff to be able to continue operating in the bloc.
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