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‘No Chaos’ in City of London After Brexit, U.K. Minister Insists

`No Chaos' in City of London After Brexit, U.K. Minister Insists

(Bloomberg) -- Treasury minister John Glen played down the risks facing London’s financial district after Brexit, seeking to reassure investors and traders worried about the U.K. leaving the European Union without a deal.

“There will be no chaos in the city of London no matter how the final deal on Brexit works,” Glen told Bloomberg TV, citing the U.K.’s “world-class” Financial Conduct Authority, the nation’s leadership status in fintech and the government’s pledge to keep corporation tax low. “I wouldn’t be so sure there is that much uncertainty.”

Prime Minister Theresa May’s government has stepped up planning for a no-deal Brexit with little progress in negotiations with the EU, which has rejected key parts of her plan. The U.K. has long since scaled back its ambition for British banks to retain their so-called passporting access to the EU’s single market, and is instead pushing a form of “equivalence” on financial services.

U.K. Citizens in EU May Lose Pension Access in No-Deal Brexit

Meanwhile, the European Commission is exploring what emergency measures it may need to take without the U.K.’s cooperation, according to people familiar with a meeting between the bloc’s 27 remaining governments. While that is likely to include continuation of vital services, such as financial services and trade in medicine and flights, the individual industries haven’t been confirmed.

--With assistance from Shery Ahn, John Glover and Ian Wishart.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net;Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs

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