Luxembourg denies ‘race to the bottom’ for UK financiers after Ireland’s accusations

LUXEMBOURG has hit back at claims that it is giving finance firms easy access to the EU by allowing “brass plate” operations to list an address in the Duchy even though they have no real presence there.

Luxembourg’s officials took offence at accusations by Eoghan Murphy, Ireland’s former finance minister, that some countries had engaged in “very aggressive” behaviour including “creeping regulatory arbitrage”.

“As long as we can get those sorts of false accusations out of the debate, I think all the other competitive elements are just a normal occurrence of business,” said Nicolas Mackel, chief executive of Luxembourg for Finance.

He also gave strong hints that the eurozone finance centres should not row over their methods of competing for finance firms. “We make it a point never to talk negatively about our competitors,” Mr Mackel said.

Ireland has been criticised for seeking to attract business to the Republic with its headline corporation tax rate of 12.5pc. The policy has been successful.

The row came as MUFG, Japan’s biggest bank, was poised to choose Amsterdam as its new investment banking base after Brexit. Sources said “fewer than 100” jobs would initially be affected.

Analysis by Oxford Economics also showed London’s economy was set to outpace rivals Frankfurt and Paris for the next five years.