Bobby Dean

The UK financial services industry is vital to our economy. It enables us all to buy houses and cars, to save and invest safely and to insure against bad outcomes; it provides millions of jobs, not only in London but right across the UK; and it contributes hundreds of billions of pounds to GDP. It is one of the UK’s only world-leading industries. We have 160 foreign banks in the City and twice as many US dollars are traded on the UK foreign exchange in the UK than in the US. We have the largest source of pension funds in Europe—and if I mention Europe, as a Liberal Democrat I must also mention Brexit. It is true that the UK financial services industry has remained strong after Brexit. Of course it has: it is a world-leading industry that has many advantages beyond its access to European markets. We have, for instance, the advantages of location, language and law, and there is enormous talent here in the capital. However, we should not mistake that resilience for evidence that Brexit did not harm financial services. Exports of financial services have declined by 5.9%, and, according to TheCityUK, that is at least partly due to Brexit frictions. The loss of passporting rights, for example, makes it harder to acquire clients across the continent. Compliance and administrative costs have risen, and we are now less attractive in relation to becoming a pan-European headquarters. Whatever the dispute may be when it comes to the precise numerical impact of Brexit on financial services, this negative track has to be acknowledged.