Sunak unveils post-Brexit City reforms

Sunak unveils post-Brexit City reforms

Rishi Sunak has unveiled a series of reforms designed to boost the City of London's global pull for share trading and listings, following the loss of business after Brexit.

The chancellor on Thursday set out details of proposed changes to rules governing stock market listings, stock, bond and commodity trading and insurance, underscoring the UK's willingness to split from the EU rule book it had once helped write.

Sunak said the proposals, which also seek to encourage new technologies and promote green finance, represented "a new chapter for financial services."

In a wide-ranging review, the Treasury also announced plans to force large banks and building societies to guarantee cash withdrawal and deposit services are available within a "reasonable" distance of most of the population.

The UK's proposals for financial services, one of the UK's biggest export industries, have assumed greater urgency in the six months since it left the EU single market.

Around €8bn-a-day of EU equities trading moved to Amsterdam and Paris almost overnight after the end of the Brexit transition period on January 1 because Brussels' rules barred it from remaining in London.

London has also lost out to Frankfurt and New York in the rush to attract so-called Spacs, or blank cheque companies,