The Prime Minister's announcement of the Government's
decision to trigger Article 50 (Art 50) and commence the process of
the UK's formal withdrawal from the EU is momentous in many
ways. However, for financial services firms - many of which
have been working on their Brexit contingency planning for six
months or more - the significance of today is that it means that
they now have a maximum of two years in which to implement their
plans.
We observe varying levels of preparedness for Brexit in the
financial services sector. As expected, large complex wholesale
banking firms which use London as their base to access the rest of
the EU are well advanced in their contingency planning, and have
already shortlisted two to three locations in the EU27 to establish
a new entity. They will now move quickly to identify a single,
preferred location and develop a selection of design scenarios for
deeper regulatory discussions and implementation. Other firms which
have done less
