Banks amongst winners on FTSE as City waits for trade deal confirmation
Lloyds Bank and Natwest are amongst those enjoying a Brexit deal boost on the FTSE 100 today.
Lloyds is up more than 4 per cent on the last day of trading before Christmas.
Natwest is also up.
The deal is expected to be announced by Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen within the next few hours.
It is likely to ensure goods can move between the UK and the continent without tariffs or quotas.
Financial services are largely bound up in so-called rollover agreements, with the future relationship still somewhat in doubt in the medium- and long-term.
Jake Green, financial regulatory partner at law firm Ashurst, said “from a financial services basis, nothing changes.
“But it should mean more ‘deals’ and ‘equivalence’ down the line. Either way, no-one is quite sure what January 1 2021 will look like for the financial services and markets.”
City analysts had baked in a deal to 2021 planning, but it remains the case that the small print in the 2,000 word document will be pored over in the days to come.