Plan now for no-deal split with EU, City watchdog urges

THE City watchdog has joined Brussels in warning that plans for a no-deal Brexit must be stepped up amid fears firms will not be prepared next March.

Speaking a week after finance bosses were told the Brexit model they wanted was off the table, Nausicaa Delfas, the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) head of international strategy, said the agency was planning for the UK to leave the EU without a trade deal.

“We must prepare for all scenarios, including the possibility of a ‘no-deal’ or ‘hard’ Brexit at March 2019,” she told executives in London. “And that is what we are doing: across the FCA, together with colleagues from the Bank of England and the Government, we have been working to develop a number of safeguards and contingencies, in the event of a hard Brexit, to ensure that ‘day one’ works smoothly.”

Her speech coincided with the European Commission’s warning to EU countries that they should be ready for a no-deal scenario, as new Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab arrived in Brussels for his first round of talks.