What Might Brexit Mean For Financial Services?

On 29 March 2017 the UK's Article 50 Notice was delivered to the European Council in Brussels, triggering the formal process for the UK's exit from the EU.

Immediately following delivery of the notice, the UK Government's Department for Exiting the European Union issued a White Paper on the Great Repeal Bill (entitled "Legislating for the UK's withdrawal from the European Union"). The paper focuses on the legal changes that will result from the UK's exit from the EU. The Government's aim is one of stability: to ensure that "the same rules and laws will apply on the day after exit as the day before".

The intention is that the Great Repeal Bill will repeal the European Communities Act 1972 (giving effect in UK law to the UK's exit from the EU), while at the same time ensuring that the body of EU law (known as the "acquis") as it exists at the time of Brexit is preserved in domestic UK law. Pre-Brexit EU law would therefore continue to apply unless and until such