Brexit and Financial Services - an update on preparations for a "no-deal" Brexit

On 16th July 2019, AFME (the Association for Financial Markets in Europe) published a short briefing update on preparations for a "no-deal" Brexit in the context of financial services.

AFME summarises its views well in the update as follows:-

"While a very substantial amount of work has already been undertaken to mitigate risks by both firms and regulators, a no-deal Brexit is likely to have a significant impact on the financial services sector and regulatory and operational challenges remain."

The update covers a number of diverse areas of financial services where AFME considers that further detailed consideration is required, namely,  access to UK CCPs (central counterparties), share and derivative trading obligations, continued servicing of existing contracts and national contingency measures, clarification of interdealer trading, supervisory co-operation, ,the impact of split EU and UK MIFID regimes, operational challenges of a mid-week exits  and secondary impacts of a no-deal scenario.

This is all very technical stuff but the desired objective of the financial markets is clear  - which is to keep trade in financial services products flowing as seamlessly as possible between the UK and the EU following a "no-deal " Brexit. 

The  language and  tone of the AFME briefing update suggest that there is still a considerable amount  to be done to achieve that objective.