Rishi Sunak assures City that bonfire of financial services regulations post-Brexit is around the corner
Rishi Sunak has moved to assure the City that changes to financial services regulation post-Brexit are around the corner as he set out his ambition to “make sure [London] remains the most competitive place in the world for financial services”.
When challenged at a Conservative party conference fringe event on why there hasn’t been a bonfire of EU regulations post-Brexit, the chancellor said it was “systematically happening across government” and that “you’ll see the fruits of that in the coming months and years”.
Two government reviews released this year have outlined a number of proposed changes to financial services regulations now that the UK is no longer tied to the EU’s rulebook.
This regulatory divergence will mean the financial services sector will not regain its pre-Brexit access to EU markets, however the chancellor has argued this will help the City boost its global competitiveness.
Sunak said earlier this year that Brexit would lead to a “big bang 2.0” in reference to the period of financial services deregulation in the 1980s.
Among the policy suggestions in the two reviews are changes to the share listings rules to attract more tech unicorns to go public in the UK, allowing blank-cheque Spacs to list in London and reducing capital requirements for insurance firms.
“We have this unique opportunity now we haven’t had for decades to look at this stuff afresh and certainly in the bit I’m responsible for, financial services, I wrote in my speech in Mansion House some time ago that set out what I think is probably some of the most ambitious approaches to regulation in financial services we have seen in a long time,” Sunak said.
“We are going on all of those things to deliver the reforms that the industry can now benefit from post-Brexit and make sure this remains the most competitive place in the world for financial services.”