Brussels plans to crack down on a patchwork of national arrangements that allow banks outside the EU to sell services into the bloc, dealing a blow to lenders in London that rely on the arrangements to cushion the impact of Brexit.
The proposal would stop almost all cross-border selling from non-EU countries into the bloc’s single market. Banks are keen on cross-border access to the EU because it is cheaper and simpler to do some trade from their main international centres rather than moving capital and staff.
The cross border clampdown is part of an attempt to streamline how global banks operate in the EU, with Brussels also wanting to give regulators more power to make banks turn some branches into more closely supervised subsidiaries.