21 November 2017

Financial Times: EBA shift expected to weaken UK role in regulation

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels voted for the EBA to shift its headquarters from London to Paris after Brexit.

The organisation has been based in London since its creation in 2011, but with just 185 staff occupying a few floors of Canary Wharf’s Canada Square, the move to Paris is no great loss to the UK from a jobs or real estate perspective.

Experts, however, said there would be other consequences. “It will diminish [UK] soft power and give us less influence over the rules and regulations [the EBA] set,” said Jon Holt, head of financial services at the UK business of KPMG, the accounting firm.

He added, however, that he did not think the move would undermine London’s role as a leading centre for financial services in the short term. “London’s status as a world city, its language, law, capital markets and role in dollar clearing all provide an unrivalled draw,” he said.

Tom Huertas, partner at EY, the consulting firm, and a former chair of the EBA, said the move to Paris highlighted the reality the UK will face after it leaves the EU in March 2019.

“The EBA move out of the UK makes clear that in the future the UK will no longer have a seat at the table when the EU determines the rules that govern EU finance,” he added.

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