The uk-eu relationship in financial services

EU and other major jurisdictions on their respective approaches 
to Green Taxonomy, while ensuring that the UK’s own approach is 
environmentally sound and grounded in science.
Approaches to securing market access
235. As noted in Chapter 1, the TCA contains very few provisions concerning 
market access for the financial services sector. Indeed, witnesses largely 
agreed that Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) like the TCA rarely, if ever, 
made much provision for financial services. In the words of Richard Fox of 
the FCA, “FTAs … do not tend to focus on financial services other than 
possibly setting up … cooperation [fora].”
300
236. However, the Government is currently exploring an alternative and innovative 
approach to improving the UK sector to foreign markets by negotiating a 
Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) with Switzerland. Many witnesses 
saw this approach as having significantly more potential than the FTA route.
301
Sam Woods explained: “[The] MRA process is a richer and better way of 
doing what is intended to be achieved by some bits of equivalence, because 
it is about the market access bits but, crucially … [is] outcome-based.”
302
Richard Fox added:
“[A] Mutual Recognition Agreement is a much more detailed assessment 
predicated on much more deference to the other side’s system of laws 
and regulation. Therefore, it involves a more intense assessment on our 
part, as the regulators, on whether those frameworks deliver the same 
outcomes … FTAs are a good place to start, but if you really want deep 
cross-border trade you are more looking at an MRA”.
303
237. Miles Celic of TheCityUK agreed, telling the inquiry:
“With the Swiss we are taking absolutely the right approach in trying to 
go for a mutual regulatory recognition arrangement. As a senior Swiss 
Government figure said to us, if you cannot have mutual regulatory 
recognition between the UK and Switzerland, it is very hard to think of 
two countries where it is possible at all. There is political will, and you 
have two highly sophisticated, well developed and in many ways very 
similar financial services and ecosystems that should be able to interlock 
pretty well, with two very high-class regulators that work well together.”
304
300 
Q 59;
see also 
Q 25
(Sir Jon Cunliffe), 
Q 15
(Miles Celic) and 
Q 46
(Caroline Dawson).
301 See 
Q 46
 (Caroline Dawson) and written evidence from the City of London Corporation (
RFS0002
).
302 
Q 59
303 
Ibid.
304 
Q 15

---

59
THE UK-EU RELATIONSHIP IN FINANCIAL SERVICES
238. Witnesses not only supported the current negotiations with Switzerland but 
saw the potential of an agreement as a precedent for future negotiations. 
Caroline Dawson of Clifford Chance hoped that if “we can achieve a very 
ambitious mutual recognition arrangement with Switzerland … it would be 
fantastic if we could use that as a template to roll out to other jurisdictions.”
305
239. For the Government, the Economic Secretary spoke of the “mutual appetite 
for similar standards of openness and giving each other access in different 
domains” in terms of the negotiations with Switzerland and also hoped that a 
successful agreement would be a “useful template for financial services with 
other jurisdictions”, although he did not wish to be drawn into speculating 
which jurisdictions those might be.
306
240.