neoaccounting

The impact of a hard Brexit on the financial services (FS) sector should not be underestimated Under the EU single market for financial services, a firm can use its regulatory authorisation in one EU state (or EEA state under some directives) to passport into other member states through establishing a branch or providing services on a cross-border basis. Simply looking at the number of organisations affected by the loss of passporting illustrates the scale of the challenge: as set out in  a letter  from the Financial Conduct Authority  in August 2016, the number of firms using passporting (inbound and outbound and not limited to banks and insurers) totalled 13,484. It is possible that agreement will be reached with the EU which will allow UK banks and insurers continued access to EU markets without the need for local authorisation or approval (and vice versa). This will however be dependent on political will and the outcome may remain unknown until cl...