EU rejects Brexit plan for banks by Britain’s financial industry
London — European Commission officials have rejected the City of London’s proposal to strike a post-Brexit free trade deal on financial services, a major blow to Britain’s hopes of keeping full access to EU markets for one of the world’s top two financial centres. The decision increases the likelihood that the City will trade with Europe under less favourable terms and could accelerate corporate contingency plans to move more operations to the continent from London. Since Britain voted to leave the EU 19 months ago, some of the world’s most powerful finance companies in London have been searching for a way to preserve the existing cross-border flow of trading after it leaves the bloc in 2019. Officials from the European Union’s executive told British financiers in meetings in recent weeks they won’t agree to a deal that would allow finance companies to operate in each others’ markets without barriers because Britain has said it will leave the single market, according to two people w...
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