The financial district lost its crown to Amsterdam as Europe’s top place to buy and sell stock. Traders have shifted interest-rate swaps out of the U.K. capital. Relocations of bankers are set to continue in 2021.
With constant sparring between officials on both sides of the Channel, industry executives are pessimistic that talks will lead to an easy solution allowing business to carry on anything like how it did before. The EU has already made clear that it’s in no rush to grant the U.K. access to the bloc and is on a mission to build its own capital markets.
While the EU opened access to London clearinghouses at the end of the Brexit transition period, the decision is good only for 18 months, to June 2022. And the EU is applying more pressure on banks and money managers to move euro swaps clearing to inside the bloc.Amsterdam overtook London as Europe’s largest share trading center in January after Brexit saw about half of the city’s volumes move to the continent.