By Jessica Frank-Keyes
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is set to ink a financial services deal with Switzerland in a bid to ease business transactions with UK firms and individuals.
Hunt will sign the agreement, based around mutual regulatory regime recognition, on Thursday during a visit to Bern in a boost for the City of London after Brexit.
According to the Financial Times, he will claim the agreement was possible thanks to the UK’s exit from the European Union (EU), allowing Britain to negotiate its own deals.
While the Treasury said the agreement would enhance the two countries “thriving” relationship.
Trade secretary Kemi Badenoch travelled to Switzerland earlier this year – flying the flag for the Square Mile – for talks on a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European nation.
The Chancellor will launch the deal with Swiss counterpart Karin Keller-Sutter, according to the FT, after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak first opened negotiations in 2020.
Paul Blomfield, co-convenor of the cross-party UK Trade and Business Commission, welcomed the news, and said: “This agreement will be well received across the City.
“It is a welcome acknowledgement from the government that providing regulatory certainty between UK industries and their most important markets is a good thing.”
He added: “The EU remains the largest overseas market for most British businesses and protecting them demands similar arrangements of beneficial regulatory alignment, which will break down barriers, reduce costs and unlock the huge potential of the UK economy.”
Research by the House of Commons Library found in 2021, financial services contributed £173.6bn to the UK economy, or 8.3 per cent of total output, with around half in London.
While exports of financial services were worth £61.3bn in 2021, although EU exports had dropped dramatically since 2018, falling 19 per cent in cash terms.
