Financial services was not part of the December 2020 EU-UK trade deal, but both sides signed a memorandum of understanding last year, pledging cooperation. But Brussels has paused any progress in the area as a wider dispute over Northern Ireland drags on.
European Commission financial services chief Mairead McGuinness said the bloc is “watching the UK’s plans for its financial services sector with interest. Deregulation of financial services has no place in a financial system which is already too opaque. The global financial system is under scrutiny as we witness the efforts to freeze the bottomless wealth of Russian oligarchs and their efforts to protect that wealth.
Dirty money has no place in any financial system–neither the UK’s or the EU’s.” Recently the City of London’s Irish-born lord mayor, Vincent Keaveny, called for a promised EU-UK financial regulatory forum to be set up, a kind of talking shop for both sides to discuss planned laws. The
EU meets twice yearly with the US in a similar set-up, and also has joint forums with Japan, Switzerland and Canada.
