S5 Ep41: Backstage: The EU financial services landscape after Brexit

Bruegel fellows Rebecca Christie and Nicolas Véron
discuss how the map of the EU's financial services industry has
begun to change, and how it might eventually settle.


The Brexit process has begun to unravel the supremacy of London
as the financial centre of Europe, yet it remains unclear how the
map of the EU's financial system will eventually be refigured.


Several cities have emerged to compete not only for the business
that is leaving the UK's capital but for new investment as well.
This raises broader questions about whether it is more beneficial
to have a single hub or to spread financial services across
numerous locations. It also poses difficulties for firms that
relocate, some of whose general staff may prefer a different
destination to that desired by the lawyers and compliance
officers.


Brexit has set in motion events that will not be undone even if
the UK were to throw the process in full reverse, and remain in
the EU, and the idea has been mooted that Brexit merely
accelerated a desertion of London that may have happened in any
case. Still, the future landscape of the EU's financial services
industry will still largely depend on the final shape of the UK's
future relationship with the EU. Broadly, observers would expect
a harder Brexit to yield a swifter and more seismic movement away
from London.


In this episode of the Bruegel Backstage podcast series, Bruegel
visiting fellow Rebecca Christie and senior fellow Nicolas Véron
discuss the early developments in this direction, and the
likeliest areas of future progression.


Each of the discussants made presentations at the Bruegel event
'The emerging new geography of financial centers in Europe',
which was conducted under the Chatham House rule.


For further reading, we recommend this article written by Nicolas
Véron about the relocation of banking business from London to
elsewhere in Europe in the wake of the Brexit referendum vote.