A tale of two cities
While the Bank of England in the City is worrying about whether it needs to increase interest rates to bear down on inflation, the ECB in Frankfurt is working out how to bear down on the City.
The ECB wants banks in the EU to move more of their money and staff from London to the Continent. It can do this because it is their banker of last resort and the UK is no longer in the EU, so the government in London cannot stop them.
Attempts by UK based financial institutions to “brass plate” their operation in the EU, just put a plate with their name on it over an office somewhere in the EU and claim to be working from there, are coming up against the power of the EU’s institutions.
The City is and will remain the biggest financial centre in Europe, it is just too big to knock off top slot. But every job and every pound that has to go to the EU is lost economic growth and lost tax revenue.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.