A top Citi banker has clashed with a Brexit-backing MP over the need for clarity on the future of passporting rights
One of Citi’s most senior UK bankers has clashed with a Brexiteer MP over the need for clarity around passporting rights for financial services.
Speaking at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, Leave campaigner Dominic Raab played down the importance of passporting, arguing that several alternative models would allow UK-based institutions to access the market, and allow for Canada to retain its strength.
"We could have a deal with is based on equivalence of regulation,” Raab said, adding that regardless of the nature of a deal, “I don’t see a cliff edge for the City. I think it will say the global leader."
However, James Bardrick, head of Citi UK, responded that uncertainty around the future is harming financial institutions while they wait for more information on the likely shape of access to European markets.
“The big issues that we will all have is the timing issue,” Bardrick says. “We have customers asking us today to give them reassurance.”
He added: “That’s why we are talking very clearly to government.”
It comes after Brexit secretary David Davis yesterday said the UK would seek the “freest possible trade” with the EU compatible with reforms to migration rules.