Bank of England governor Mark Carney renews calls to help businesses navigate Brexit

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Bank of England governor Mark Carney has today reiterated his views that businesses need a helping hand to get through Brexit.

Speaking at a press conference to coincide with this morning's release of the Bank's stress test results and latest Financial Stability report, Carney said that businesses needed as smooth a transition as possible as the UK left the EU.

"A transition will happen, it's a question of when and how," he said. "It is preferable that firms know as much as possible about the desired end point…And as much as possible as early as possible about the potential path to that end point."

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Recent reports suggest that Carney, who is set to stand down as Bank of England governor in 2019, is keen to secure transitional arrangements to create a Brexit buffer for businesses and to make sure valuable rights currently enjoyed by many firms are not snatched away overnight.

Earlier this month, Theresa May, who has repeatedly said government will not be offering a running commentary on Brexit, remarked that she was aware businesses were wary of a cliff edge situation for their rights and would keep this in mind as she entered the Brexit talks. 

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Carney said today:

As the prime minister has said, it’s preferable that that process is as smooth and orderly as possible and there is going to be a transition that either happens at the end of the negotiation of the new arrangement or that happens during the process of that negotiation.

The Bank of England governor is not the only one calling for transition periods to be secured, with RBS chairman Sir Howard Davies recently calling for rights such as passporting to be phased out rather than cut off, the British Bankers' Association urging the chancellor to do what he could to safeguard firms from disruption as Brexit day approached and Sir Win Bischoff, chairman of JP Morgan Securities, saying at a recent conference it would be "advantageous to have a transition period beyond the two-year period" the UK would have before it left the EU after the triggering of Article 50.