AFP, Brussels :
The EU on Tuesday is to unveil new rules that could require a huge slice of London’s banking business to leave after Brexit in a blow to the city’s supremacy as a global financial hub.
If confirmed, the rules would be seen as a hostile move against Britain ahead of coming Brexit negotiations only days after Prime Minister Theresa May embarrassingly lost her majority in British elections.
The draft law to be unveiled by European Commission vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis could deny post-Brexit London the right to host financial market “clearing houses” that deal in euros, the EU’s single currency.
Clearing houses are a key part of the financial system’s plumbing, with trillions of euros being handled every year, mostly out of London.
The issue of whether euro clearing houses can remain in the British capital is set to be one of the most contentious issues when Britain negotiates its future trade relationship with the EU after its departure.
Britain has jealously guarded dominance of the clearing house sector in Europe and won an EU court decision in 2015 against the European Central Bank in order to keep hosting the euro deals.
