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France Wants A Piece of Britain’s Financial Industry

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:51 PM
Justin OConnell
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:51 PM

France wants a piece of Britain’s financial industry, and the nation says it might make a bid if Brexit doesn’t play equal in Brexit negotiations.

According to a London City figure, French officials will aim to harm Britain’s financial industry as payback for Brexit.

According to Anthony Browne, chief executive of British Bankers’ Association, sources said  confidentially a plot to prevent UK access “under a so-called equivalence regime” would preclude Britain from getting access to EU markets “provided UK rules are as strong as those overseas.”

According to This Is Money UK: “The warning from Browne came as the French ambassador to the UK mounted a charm offensive and evidence grew of a concerted lobbying effort by Paris to steal the City’s crown.”

Britain voted to break away from the European Union.

Banks expect to lose prized passporting privileges so they can offer their products within any market in the European economic union. The onus will now be on Britain to demonstrate its rules aren’t more stringent than the European Union.

“Some experts argue that since Britain has been governed by EU law for decades, this equivalence is beyond doubt and could be relied upon once the nation has quit,” according to James Burton for the Daily Mail .

“The alternatives, such as equivalence, are shadows of genuine passporting,” Browne said at the BBA’s annual conference yesterday. “Other countries are actively lobbying banks to move jobs and businesses away from the UK. I recently heard that the French Treasury told a group of banks it was trying to persuade to move to Paris that although the UK might have to be granted equivalence initially, the question is how quickly they could force the UK to lose equivalence.”

The French authorities have been transparent about their posturing, with President Francois Hollande insinuating more financiers should “come to France.”

Deterring businesses from France might be the high tax rate. It also recently suggested  a tax on Netflix and YouTube.

Blockchain financial services company, Circle, recently launched in several European nations, including France.