Hammond says finance deal best for City and EU

HSBC’S base in London’s Docklands, warned that failure to include financial services in any Brexit trade deal would hit European centres as well as the City of London Rivals to the City of London have been warned by Philip Hammond they will not pick up business from a Brexit deal which excludes financial services.

The Chancellor said it would be in the interests of both the European Union and UK for the sector to be part of the settlement. Mr Hammond warned the “real beneficiaries” of any loss of market share in London would not be EU trading centres, but global hubs like New York, Singapore and Hong Kong.

In a speech in London, Mr Hammond said: “I want to challenge the assertion that financial services can’t be part of a free trade agreement, to set out why it is in the interests of both the UK and the EU27 to ensure that EU businesses and citizens can continue to access the UK financial services hub.

“This is not a zero-sum game where any loss of market share in London is automatically a gain to another EU capital.” Mr Hammond said the City of London was a “European asset” and any trade deal which undermined it would damage the EU. He said: “Those who think that the major winners for any fragmentation of London’s markets would be Paris or Frankfurt, Dublin or Luxembourg should take note.

“The real beneficiaries are more likely to be New York, Singapore, and Hong Kong.”