17 04 2017

Top EU lawmaker says all euro business should be moved out of London

It is all about European supervision and defending European jobs, says Manfred Weber.

All euro-denominated financial businesses should be moved out of London and into the European Union after the UK exits from the bloc, a top EU lawmaker said on Tuesday (4 April).

Speaking at a news conference in Strasbourg, Manfred Weber, the head of the conservative grouping, the European People Party – the largest in the European Parliament – said: "People expect that we do the euro business and all the business which is linked to the euro on European soil."

He said that it was not conceivable that after Brexit, business conducted in euros should continue to remain in London, Reuters reported.

Weber insisted that the EU should protect the interests of financial hubs within the bloc, like Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin and Amsterdam.

However, he declined to answer questions on whether this would involve shifting the clearing of euro-denominated derivatives to the EU.

London is the world's leading financial centre for the clearing of euro-denominated derivatives and the European Central Bank (ECB) has been trying unsuccessfully to relocate this operation into the eurozone.

Weber told reporters that his comments on relocating business from London were general but added that they were about "European supervision, the European Banking Authority (EBA) and defending European jobs."

Although the draft Brexit resolution that the European Parliament is set to adopt on Wednesday (5 April) does not mention the relocation of financial business, the text does state that the EBA, which is currently based in London should be relocated as quickly as possible. The EBA monitors banking rules in the EU.