The EU has no excuse to financial services being excluded from a post-Brexit free trade deal between the UK and the EU, the FCA has argued.

Speaking at a Future of the City dinner in London, chief executive Andrew Bailey said: “In the approach the EU took to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations with the US, where the EU pursued a trade agreement which included provision for financial services.”

“The US wasn’t ready for such a move, but this doesn’t take away from the fact that to its credit, the EU proposed such an arrangement. And what this meant was a proposal for close regulatory co-operation which could underpin broad mutual recognition and thus a commitment to ensuring open markets.

“The European Commission drafted a TTIP chapter on financial services. So, it turns out that it can be done, and moreover there is an extant proposal from the EU which could be a good starting point for UK-EU mutual recognition. The EU has also taken over 200 equivalence decisions on third country jurisdictions in financial services.

“So, when I hear that there is not a single trade agreement open to financial services, I think, 'really?'. And, it would not have to involve a loss of regulatory autonomy.”

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