Bespoke Brexit Deal For Financial Services Challenging

A former UK Foreign Office official has warned the City's financial services sector that any carving out of a sector-based agreement as part of a post-Brexit trade deal is likely to be seen as 'cherry picking' and unacceptable to the European Union's remaining member states.

In an address to more than 200 financial services practitioners, FTI Consulting's Louise Harvey OBE said the third country regime which allows outside jurisdictions to place financial products into the EU was never intended to deal with an external player the size of London.

"For a situation like Brexit where potentially the majority of all services would come from a country that is not a member state, that is not an attractive option for the EU 27... The only solution that could potentially take into account all those issues and sensitivities would be a bespoke deal for financial services," said Ms Harvey.