Politics of Brexit at odds with banks’ business needs, banking conference told
The politics of Brexit is doing little to help banks keep calm and carry on, several key figures have said today.
Speaking at the British Bankers' Association's (BBA) International Banking Conference, Lord Mandelson, Labour politician and now chairman at advisory group Global Counsel, remarked that banks need some sort of certainty on what government was planning for the Brexit deal because "your customers, your clients, want to know where they stand".
However, Mandelson continued: "Instead all they're being offered is complete uncertainty…until the government gets serious about this…that uncertainty that being faced by your customers and clients is not going to fade away and, we're not talking about weeks and months, we're talking about years."
Read more: Brexit more benefit to US than Europe, says Deutsche's chief economist
Meanwhile, former attorney general and chair of the National Security Strategy Joint Committee Dominic Grieve added the position for government members was currently difficult because they "can't show their negotiating hand in detail because then they don't have a negotiating hand", regardless of the fact that this position was not good for business.
Ronald Kent, BBA's managing director of financial and wholesale policy, added there was a "contradiction between the reality of politics and the reality of serving customers" when it came to Brexit.
In particular, Kent expressed concern that government's flat out refusal to reveal its stance on its negotiating position meant "it's difficult to know whether the landing zones is one that allows you to carry on (serving clients as usual)".
Read more: Garnier joins Hammond in reassuring the City it's still important
The conference was also host to a heated debated over when the Article 50 process should be started. Mandelson spoke out in favour of triggering the formal EU departure process "as soon as possible", adding the UK should "confront our fate, so businesses know where we stand".
But Grieve raised doubts over whether government was truly in the position to trigger Article 50 in the first quarter of 2017, as per Prime Minister Theresa May's stated intentions.
"I don't see Article 50 being triggered at the end of March," Grieve said.
Earlier this week, City PM revealed that many in the City were becoming frustrated at government's seeming indifference to what they needed from the Brexit deal to be able to carry on business as usual.