12 February 2018

Financial Times: European businesses expect UK soft Brexit, Survey suggests

Of those questioned, 58 per cent also believe that the City of London will keep its prized “passporting” rights, which enable banks to offer financial services across the EU, after Brexit, despite this having been ruled out by Brussels, according to FTI consulting, the group that conducted the survey.

More than two-thirds of the UK-based financial companies surveyed said that they expected the financial passport to continue.

FTI said the findings “hint at a misreading of the political reality”. 

“Certainty remains in short supply” in the Brexit negotiations, “with little prospect of companies getting comfort on the future trade agreement any time soon”, said Hans Hack, a member of FTI’s Brexit task force.

The survey results were collected online during two weeks in December. [...]

The executives surveyed by FTI warned that businesses will soon have to make “irreversible” changes to their operations to prepare for the UK’s departure from the EU. Of companies surveyed, 53 per cent said they would make these changes by next month, and almost three-quarters will have done so by June.

UK businesses emerged as being the most concerned about the potential impact of Brexit, with 74 per cent expressing concerns, compared with an average of 61 per cent for German, French and Spanish companies. 

But the survey indicated that businesses were confident about their prospects despite the UK leaving the bloc.

Two-thirds of the companies surveyed said they expected to increase turnover in the first year following Brexit, with 12 per cent expecting a decrease. A majority of companies also expected to increase their headcount over this timeframe. 

Close to 70 per cent of the companies feel “prepared for Brexit”, with eight out of 10 respondents saying their businesses had established a dedicated Brexit team to manage the consequences and identify opportunities. [...]

Full article on Financial Times (subscription required)

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