Delegation in New York to boost banking and finance

REPRESENTATIVES from the City of London are to travel to the US in a bid to boost transatlantic ties for the finance sector post-Brexit.

City of London Corporation policy chair Catherine McGuinness and Lord Mayor Peter Estlin will visit New York today to meet senior figures from the banking and finance industry.

The pair are seeking to promote London’s financial services sector and explore opportunities to collaborate in areas such as fintech and green finance as they sit down with Citi, JP Morgan, Blackrock and other financial businesses. The visit will include a focus on venture capital spending, following a reportedly record amount of fintech investment in London so far in 2019.

According to data from London & Partners and Innovate Finance, during the first eight months of the year more than $2billion (£1.6billion) was invested in London-based businesses in 114 deals.

Mr Estlin and Ms McGuinness’s visit comes against a backdrop of a possible post-Brexit trade deal between the UK and US. The City of London Corporation, the body providing services to London’s Square Mile, said that the capital’s financial sector wants any trade arrangement to prioritise deepening regulatory and supervisory relationships.

The corporation said the US and UK are the world’s biggest exporters of financial services, while the two countries are also each other’s biggest financial services export partners.

Ms McGuinness is also due to travel to Washington for meetings with the US Treasury, Federal Reserve and US Trade Representative where she will argue for a “regulatory highway” for UK and US services.

She said: “The UK and US have many common interests in the regulation of the financial services sector in years to come.

“I want to see us build on the regulatory highway between our two countries, based on continued faith in open and free global financial markets.

“As we consider the shape of the UK’s future trading relationship with the USA, we should keep all options on the table to ensure that business has the best opportunity to do what it does best – creating jobs and prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic.”

At a United Nations meeting in New York last month, US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Boris Johnson discussed establishing a free trade agreement once the UK leaves the European Union.

‘We should keep all options on the table to create prosperity’