Is Lloyd’s of London set for sunnier climes?
MALTA has emerged as one of the possible sites for the European base of Lloyds of London should the UK lose passporting rights after Brexit.
The insurance giant wants to establish contingency arrangements should the UK lose the current level of access to the EU’s market for financial services. A spokesperson told City PM last week: "We've had some contingency plans in place for a while. We're refining them at the moment…We have to have our plans ready to roll in the fairly near future."
"We will continue to develop our plans on creating a subsidiary and will provide a detailed update to the market on the progress we have made early next year."
The organisation is understood have whittled down potential sites to five possible locations for its European base, including Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin and now Malta, according to a report in the Mail on Sunday. The shortlist will be put to Lloyd’s members in February.
The 328 year-old organisation sees 11 per cent of its revenue coming from Europe and has been lobbying the Government to maintain access to the single market, or find a way to continue the financial sector’s passporting access.
Around 5,500 UK-registered firms make use of these rights, which allows them to sell services freely across the EU and avoids the need to set up a subsidiary European base.
The company has been one of the most outspoken City firms that have warned about the potential impact of Brexit on the UK economy. Chief risk officer Sean McGovern has previously said that exiting the EU would "create a level of uncertainty, for Lloyd’s, for the London market, as well as the UK and European economies, we have rarely experienced".
The island nation of Malta gained independence from the UK in 1964 and has evolved into a hub for banking and financial services. It adopted the Euro in 2008, and has subsequently seen growth in the sector, with asset management, administration of investment funds, and insurance among the key area of operations.