Paris, je t'aime

In a post earlier this year titled 'London Not Calling' we spoke about the fact that London's "future as a financial centre is increasingly in jeopardy" due to the potential loss of 'Passporting' once the UK invokes article 50. Passporting is the ability under EU rules for any financial firm to serve the whole region from a single base, cutting costs and red tape.

Recently, there has been a lot of concern around the threat of the UK losing passporting rights, especially if the UK goes for a hard BREXIT not agreeing to allow free movement of citizens from EU nations. The head of the German Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann, warned that the UK won't get a special deal from the EU on the passports. "passporting rights are tied to the single market and would automatically cease to apply if Great Britain is no longer at least part of the European Economic Area."

More than 5,000 financial services firms are "at risk” if Britain leaves the Single Market after Brexit, a senior Conservative MP, Andrew Tyrie, has warned. The removal of passporting would lead to many financial firms in the UK seeking to move to Frankfurt, Paris or Dublin.

Mr Tyrie was an ardent Remainer and has noted his surprise that the UK government is not taking this threat more seriously. With Theresa May now admitting that Europe will seek to punish the UK to make an example to other countries that may consider following the UK's example by holding a referendum on EU membership the prospect of the UK losing passporting is very real.

Firms hold multiple passports for different business activities and different member states, bringing the total number of passports held by UK firms to 336,421.