UK watchdog and EU tell banks to prepare for hard Brexit

[snoop1130]

UK watchdog and EU tell banks to prepare for hard Brexit

By Huw Jones

 

FILE PHOTO: The Bank of England is seen in London, Britain, April 9, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s banks and insurers must plan for a “hard” Brexit in case a transition period is not in place next March, a senior British regulator said on Thursday in a warning echoed by Brussels.

 

“With eight months until we exit the European Union in March 2019, it is important we all — regulators and industry — continue to plan for a range of scenarios,” said Nausicaa Delfas, head of international strategy at the Financial Conduct Authority.

 

“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 1’ works smoothly,” Delfas told an event held by TheCityUK.

 

Britain and the EU have agreed on a transition deal bridging Brexit in March next year and the end of 2020, but it has yet to be ratified, meaning financial firms based in Britain could face an abrupt end to EU market access.

 

EU banking, insurance and markets watchdogs have already warned their respective sectors to be ready for a hard Brexit. The bloc’s executive European Commission told EU states on Thursday to “intensify preparedness” for a potentially disruptive Brexit.

 

Britain has said it and the EU should act to ensure that cross-border financial contracts like derivatives and insurance policies can still be serviced after March, but the EU reiterated on Thursday that it won’t legislate for now.

 

“In relation to contracts, at this juncture, there does not appear to be an issue of a general nature linked to contract continuity as in principle, even after withdrawal, the performance of existing obligations can continue,” the European Commission said on Thursday.

 

It is unclear what sort of EU market access financial firms in Britain will have after the transition period ends, prompting many banks and insurers to have new hubs up and running in the bloc by next March to avoid potential disruption.

 

A group of eight EU states also called for a redoubling of efforts to build a capital markets union in the bloc to provide “stable and cost-effective” funding for EU companies, given that Britain, Europe’s biggest financial centre, is leaving.

 

DO YOUR OWN THING

 

Britain’s government wants future financial services trade with the EU based on an “enhanced” version of the bloc’s basic “equivalence” regime used by Japan, Switzerland and the United States.

 

Brussels alone grants access to foreign firms if it deems that their home country rules are equivalent or aligned enough with those in the bloc.

 

Britain says this is one-sided and wants changes to make it more predictable and transparent. The EU is amending the regime, but its alterations would make it tougher on big foreign trading and clearing firms like those found in the UK’s financial sector.

 

Hugh Savill, director of regulation at the Association of British Insurers said that even with enhanced equivalence, the EU’s “imperialist” approach to rule-making would have a chilling effect on how UK regulators can supervise markets and consumers.

 

“Nobody wants to be in the position of a rule taker,” Delfas said.

 

Antony Manchester, head of Brexit at asset manager BlackRock (BLK.N) said enhanced equivalence can be made to work, but Britain and the EU have different ideas on what it means.

 

“In these debates on equivalence... the UK and EU are quite evenly matched in terms of financial services. That means we will see something more like the negotiations between the EU and U.S., where we give and take on both sides,” Manchester said.

 

But the EU and United States took four years to agree equivalence on a rules just for clearing derivatives, raising concerns in Britain over what the City financial district could face after Brexit.

 

Manchester, a former UK Treasury official, said if Brussels does not deem a UK firm to be equivalent, British regulators could choose to “do our own thing”, raising concerns about predictability for international financial firms.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-7-19

[rudi49jr]

The Brits seem to be hell bent on leaving the biggest market in the world and burning all their ships behind them in the process. Like lemmings off a cliff, comes to mind ...

[bristolboy]

6 minutes ago, rudi49jr said:

The Brits seem to be hell bent on leaving the biggest market in the world and burning all their ships behind them in the process. Like lemmings off a cliff, comes to mind ...

You pessimists. I bet you anything that there's a pot of gold at the bottom of that cliff.

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, rudi49jr said:

The Brits seem to be hell bent on leaving the biggest market in the world and burning all their ships behind them in the process. Like lemmings off a cliff, comes to mind ...

You could have said the same in 1945.

(But then it was called the Axis, and now it's called the EU)

Edited July 20, 2018 by BritManToo

[Wake Up]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

You could have said the same in 1945.

(But then it was called the Axis, and now it's called the EU)

Terrible analogy. Really. You are saying the EU is Nazi Germany. You deserve Brexit. 

[bristolboy]

2 minutes ago, Wake Up said:

Terrible analogy. Really. You are saying the EU is Nazi Germany. You deserve Brexit. 

When they start invoking WW2. or WW1, or Waterloo, or Trafalgar you know that means they've got nothing.

[Wake Up]

I love the U.K. but I am a USA citizen with no right to vote on Brexit. But I am very familiar with the international banking system and IMO Brexit is bad for the U.K. and very good for New York   and European banking and insurance cities. In this global world the U.K. will be a very small insignificant part in 10 years or less IMO. True you will not have to worry about immigration as no one will be moving there. It should be cheaper for tourist to visit when the pound is also less significant. Clearly an arrogant angry knee jerk dumb decision. In a world where the powers are USA Europe China Arabia and maybe Russia , the U.K. thinks it can go it alone. Unbelievable 

Edited July 20, 2018 by Wake Up

[RuamRudy]

7 hours ago, rudi49jr said:

The Brits seem to be hell bent on leaving the biggest market in the world and burning all their ships behind them in the process. Like lemmings off a cliff, comes to mind ...

Not all of them...

 

 

[Guest]

8 hours ago, rudi49jr said:

The Brits seem to be hell bent on leaving the biggest market in the world and burning all their ships behind them in the process. Like lemmings off a cliff, comes to mind ...

It's funny that now it really looks like UK is heading to the worst possible option - hard brexit and nobody is able to stop it.

 

Where are the real men and women, the leaders of UK, who can stop this madness from becoming a reality?

[SteveB2]

OK - so let me get this right...

After 40 years of experiencing the joys of propping up the EEC, the UK voted against an authoritarian superstate dominated by Germany.

it's inevitable and obvious that comparisons will be made to the axis powers. Get over it.

 

 

[bristolboy]

2 minutes ago, SteveB2 said:

OK - so let me get this right...

After 40 years of experiencing the joys of propping up the EEC, the UK voted against an authoritarian superstate dominated by Germany.

it's inevitable and obvious that comparisons will be made to the axis powers. Get over it.

 

 

The UK singlehandedly won WW1 and WW2 and without its contribution, the EU will lose its prop and fall.

12 billion pounds doesn't amount to much when compared to the size of the combined budget of net contributors to the EU. I think they'll manage just fine without the UK's contribution.

And Germany so dominates the EU that the Treaty with Canada was stopped bu a single province of Belgium?. And now Italy has put it on hold.

Like lots of Brexiters you confuse the EU with the Eurozone. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if you believed the UK was a member of that, too.

[Grouse]

It seems the UK tried to outflank Brussels and appealed to the 27 directly by presenting the white paper in various languages 

 

Sensible idea until you realise they used Google Translate which doesn't understand idioms. The literal translations are hilarious!

 

The EU are looking on this with good humour; I'm embarrassed. Again.

 

It would cost about 300 Euro each for professional translations ?

[melvinmelvin]

42 minutes ago, Grouse said:

It seems the UK tried to outflank Brussels and appealed to the 27 directly by presenting the white paper in various languages 

 

Sensible idea until you realise they used Google Translate which doesn't understand idioms. The literal translations are hilarious!

 

The EU are looking on this with good humour; I'm embarrassed. Again.

 

It would cost about 300 Euro each for professional translations ?

 

man,

you joke? right?

 

they didna do that?  God help UK if they did, maybe even he cannot hack cases like UK

 

[tomacht8]

If the UK is so divided and incapable of deciding parliamentarily what kind of Brexit they really want, they can not be so stupid as to reach a compromise here, that will extend the withdrawal date sufficiently, to clear first there own mess.

[Grouse]

15 hours ago, melvinmelvin said:

 

man,

you joke? right?

 

they didna do that?  God help UK if they did, maybe even he cannot hack cases like UK

 

I kid you not!

 

They had some examples on Radio 4. "To the letter of the law" is an idiom. The literal translation is funny. "Dog's breakfast"?

 

Our interlocutors are of course fluent In English

[Lungstib]

16 hours ago, SteveB2 said:

OK - so let me get this right...

Which you haven't.

[melvinmelvin]

On 7/21/2018 at 11:24 AM, Grouse said:

I kid you not!

 

They had some examples on Radio 4. "To the letter of the law" is an idiom. The literal translation is funny. "Dog's breakfast"?

 

Our interlocutors are of course fluent In English

 

this is pretty far out

dunno what to say Grouse, maybe another party in power could be an idea

 

(btw, you didna get your Danish citizenship yet since you still steam ahead with a grouse in stead of Gammel Dansk)

 

 

[dick dasterdly]

On 7/21/2018 at 12:27 AM, Grouse said:

It seems the UK tried to outflank Brussels and appealed to the 27 directly by presenting the white paper in various languages 

 

Sensible idea until you realise they used Google Translate which doesn't understand idioms. The literal translations are hilarious!

 

The EU are looking on this with good humour; I'm embarrassed. Again.

 

It would cost about 300 Euro each for professional translations ?

It seems unlikely to me that the uk would present "the white paper in various languages..... they used Google Translate".

 

First time I've heard this, and initially thought it was a joke!  But other remainers seem to believe it, so a link indicating this to be the case would be appreciated.

[The Renegade]

22 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

and initially thought it was a joke! 

 

Whilst the obvious mess of the translation is a joke. The biggest joke is that people actually believe '' Google Translate '' was used as a translation service.

 

It would appear that remainers are nowhere near as educated as they think they are and are very easily taken in by fake news.

[Chomper Higgot]

17 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

It seems unlikely to me that the uk would present "the white paper in various languages..... they used Google Translate".

 

First time I've heard this, and initially thought it was a joke!  But other remainers seem to believe it, so a link indicating this to be the case would be appreciated.

The accusation has been made that the UK Government used ‘Google Translate’ across Twitter and other social media.

 

You should not, like the actual document translations, be so literal. 

 

The refrences across social media to using Google Translate are clearly tongue in cheek (that doesn’t mean the people making the comments actually had their toungue in their cheek).

 

The central issue is the translations were pathetically poor and more over clear indication of the British Government’s attempt to bypass the EU negotiators.

 

Like everything else about Brexit, a complete cluster!

[Chomper Higgot]

7 minutes ago, The Renegade said:

 

Whilst the obvious mess of the translation is a joke. The biggest joke is that people actually believe '' Google Translate '' was used as a translation service.

 

It would appear that remainers are nowhere near as educated as they think they are and are very easily taken in by fake news.

The alternative is to believe the UK government employs translators who don’t speak the language they are translating.

 

But don’t get distracted, the core issue is another example of what a cluster Brexit is.

[dick dasterdly]

On 7/21/2018 at 12:27 AM, Grouse said:

It seems the UK tried to outflank Brussels and appealed to the 27 directly by presenting the white paper in various languages 

 

Sensible idea until you realise they used Google Translate which doesn't understand idioms. The literal translations are hilarious!

 

The EU are looking on this with good humour; I'm embarrassed. Again.

 

It would cost about 300 Euro each for professional translations ?

 

38 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

It seems unlikely to me that the uk would present "the white paper in various languages..... they used Google Translate".

 

First time I've heard this, and initially thought it was a joke!  But other remainers seem to believe it, so a link indicating this to be the case would be appreciated.

 

3 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The accusation has been made that the UK Government used ‘Google Translate’ across Twitter and other social media.

 

You should not, like the actual document translations, be so literal. 

 

The refrences across social media to using Google Translate are clearly tongue in cheek (that doesn’t mean the people making the comments actually had their toungue in their cheek).

 

The central issue is the translations were pathetically poor and more over clear indication of the British Government’s attempt to bypass the EU negotiators.

 

Like everything else about Brexit, a complete cluster!

In other words, Grouse's initial comment was a lie, but lapped up by remainers as 'fact'.....

[dick dasterdly]

9 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The accusation has been made that the UK Government used ‘Google Translate’ across Twitter and other social media.

 

You should not, like the actual document translations, be so literal. 

 

The refrences across social media to using Google Translate are clearly tongue in cheek (that doesn’t mean the people making the comments actually had their toungue in their cheek).

 

The central issue is the translations were pathetically poor and more over clear indication of the British Government’s attempt to bypass the EU negotiators.

 

Like everything else about Brexit, a complete cluster!

Genuine question - do you have a link showing that the uk govt. sent a translated version of the white paper to each of the 27 eu countries?

[Chomper Higgot]

8 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

Genuine question - do you have a link showing that the uk govt. sent a translated version of the white paper to each of the 27 eu countries?

I never claimed the UK sent their botched translations to 27 nations.

[Chomper Higgot]

14 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

 

 

In other words, Grouse's initial comment was a lie, but lapped up by remainers as 'fact'.....

No.

 

He may simply be repeating commonly held perceptions.

 

But then you may be less inhibited in accusing others of lying.

[sammieuk1]

As an expat paying the cost of Brexit from day one I think it fair that if UK ends up with any other deal other than the better out than in one promised by the leave campaign leaders Boris, Gove Farangatang and alike they should be publicly hanged on Tower bridge for treason.   

[dick dasterdly]

22 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

Genuine question - do you have a link showing that the uk govt. sent a translated version of the white paper to each of the 27 eu countries?

 

13 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

I never claimed the UK sent their botched translations to 27 nations.

So it's another 'rumour' that you were happy to believe?

[dick dasterdly]

25 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

 

 

In other words, Grouse's initial comment was a lie, but lapped up by remainers as 'fact'.....

 

9 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

No.

 

He may simply be repeating commonly held perceptions.

 

But then you may be less inhibited in accusing others of lying.

So you have no problem with "He may simply be repeating commonly held perceptions" - even if those "perceptions" are lies ☹️.

[tebee]

1 hour ago, dick dasterdly said:

Genuine question - do you have a link showing that the uk govt. sent a translated version of the white paper to each of the 27 eu countries?

https://sputniknews.com/viral/201807211066566757-brexit-paper-translation-fiasco-ridiculed/

[tebee]

and if you want to downloads a copy in any of the languages 

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-future-relationship-between-the-united-kingdom-and-the-european-union