Reports: UK set to unveil post-Brexit financial services reforms on Friday
The UK is reportedly set to bring forward long awaited post-Brexit reforms to the UK’s financial services rulebook on Friday.
Bloomberg reported this morning that the Treasury is now completing the final details of the package, with cabinet sign-off expected this week, and that an announcement is pencilled in for the end of the week.
A Treasury source told City PM that the date to unveil the package was “not confirmed”.
Diverging from EU regulations on the City has often been touted as one of the biggest potential benefits of Brexit by Leavers.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has previously called the package of reforms “Big Bang 2.0” – a reference to 1980s deregulation and the associated financial services boom in London.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said in his autumn fiscal statement that the Solvency II directive on insurance firms would be among the first to go.
It is also expected that the ring-fencing regime – which sees banks forced to completely separate investment banking and consumer banking activities – will be eased for banks with smaller investment banking operations.
Hunt said during his autumn fiscal statement that “smart regulatory reform can spur investment from all over the world”.
He also praised the beliefs of ex-chancellor Nigel Lawson, who oversaw the original Big Bang, saying that he was right to think “the most important driver of global success is not tax subsidies, but competition”.