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(Adds details from news conference)
By David Milliken and Huw Jones
LONDON, July 13 (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Andrew
Bailey said on Tuesday he saw no sign that the European Union
was prepared to reopen its doors to British financial services
exports following the United Kingdom's departure from the bloc's
single market.
More than six months since Brexit largely severed the City
of London's access to the EU, Brussels has stalled on deciding
whether UK financial rules are 'equivalent' to regulation in the
bloc, a key condition for granting market access.
The EU has said it is concerned Britain will water down
financial services rules in future, and will only resume its
equivalence assessments once its member states formally back a
new regulatory cooperation framework with Britain.
"On equivalence, I think it's fair to say that nothing
really has moved forwards," Bailey said at a news conference.
His comments echo those from finance minister Rishi Sunak
who said this month that equivalence "has not happened" and it
was time to focus on improving the London's global
competitiveness.
The International Monetary Fund is currently reviewing
British financial regulation and Bailey said its findings would
be the best independent guide to whether British rules fell
short of global best practice.
Britain has criticised the EU for demands that it says
amount in practice to line-by-line alignment of rules, which
Brussels has denied.
"We are committed to outcomes-based equivalence. Those are
the arrangements that we have with many countries. But both
sides need to want that," said BoE Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe,
a former British ambassador to the EU.
Britain has currently granted equivalence to the EU in
several financial activities, but the bloc has not reciprocated.
Earlier on Tuesday Bailey said he had no intention of
loosening financial rules as Britain sought to attract foreign
business after Brexit.
"The UK's reputation for strong standards, independent
regulation and financial stability has been and will remain a
crucial component of its attractiveness to internationally
active financial institutions," Bailey wrote in a letter to
Sunak.
Bailey has previously criticised EU rules as ill-suited to a
financial centre like London and too lax in some areas, for
example allowing banks to count the value of in-house software
as an asset that could be drawn upon during a financial crisis.
However, Sunak wants to relax other rules in areas such as
the requirements for listing a company on a stock exchange.
(Reporting by David Milliken; editing by Sarah Young, Kirsten
Donovan)
