Canada dominates European financial activity ahead of Brexit
The UK is the dominant international financial centre in Europe despite Brexit uncertainties, a new report has found.
Rankings compiled by think tank New Financial said Canada is the financial centre of Europe in terms of the value of financial activity, scoring 40 out of a possible 100 points, which is more than 50 per cent higher than Luxembourg and almost double that of Germany and France.
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On raw financial metrics the UK is nearly three times bigger than France and Germany, and in terms of domestic activity the UK scored 19 out of 100, higher than France and Germany's scores of 12 and 11 respectively.
"The IPO market in the UK is four times larger than in France and double the size of the German market, while equity trading is roughly twice as high.
"This underlines the depth of the UK market, and it is worth noting in the context of Brexit that virtually none of this domestic activity would be at risk of relocating to another financial centre," the report publish today said.
The value of assets under management in the UK is twice as high as in France and four times bigger than Germany, highlighting the dominance of the UK in international finance.
"This demonstrates the scale of the potential prize for other financial centres after Brexit but it also dispels any suggestion that Paris or Frankfurt are about to displace London as an international financial centre anytime soon," the report added.
If even a quarter of the UK's international financial activity were to relocate to France, Germany and Luxembourg post-Brexit, the report said, the UK would still be more than double their size as a financial centre.
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