Britain urges EU to expedite financial services talks

Britain urges EU to expedite financial services talks

LONDON- Britain's finance ministry called on the European Union to open talks on financial services, after the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday urged the bloc to avoid protectionism. Britain left the EU in December, largely cutting off the City of London's financial services centre from many of the markets it had formerly played a central role in. Banks and other financial firms that used London as a gateway to Europe have set up units in the EU to avoid disruption for EU clients. Billions of euros in daily euro stock and derivatives trading have already left London for the EU. Both sides have agreed to start a dialogue via an informal forum for discussing financial rules, but it has yet to go live and Katharine Braddick, director of financial services at Britain's finance ministry, said she hoped it was expedited. "Once that memorandum of understanding is agreed we can get on with establishing our routine ways of engaging," Braddick told TheCityUK's annual conference. The forum, which will not decide on financial market access, but it is viewed as critical to mend bridges, would put Britain's EU relationship on a "reliable, transparent and understandable footing" to give business certainty, she added.