By Huw Jones
LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - EU Financial Services
Commissioner Mairead McGuinness said on Tuesday that Brussels
would not grant Britain's financiers access to the bloc before
assessing the risks to financial stability - and that to do
otherwise would be an "experiment".
Britain left the EU almost a year ago, and a post-transition
trade deal that kicked in on Jan. 1 does not cover financial
services, cutting the City of London off from its most important
customer.
Talks have begun on a memorandum intended to cover
cooperation in financial regulation by the end of March, but
Brussels will not consider actual market access until later.
McGuinness said the effect on financial stability would be
considered, along with Britain's intentions about diverging from
rules inherited from the bloc.
Britain has said it wants to amend some rules, though not
weaken standards. Brussels must decide if UK rules are
'equivalent' or aligned enough with the bloc.
"We do not like 'light-touch', and deregulation is not on
our agenda," McGuinness told reporters.
"The idea of just granting equivalence to everything and
then see what happens is not strategic, in my view. I would
regard that as a bit of an experiment that I am not prepared to
go along with."
Some 6.5 billion euros in daily euro share trading left
London for the EU on Jan. 4. Bankers say the costs of switching
back mean that this business is unlikely to return, even if
Britain is eventually granted 'equivalence' in share trading.
Bankers say some trading in derivatives has also moved from
London to the EU and the United States.
The European Commission, the EU executive, published a
strategy paper on Tuesday outlining how it aims to bolster the
role of the euro in a global financial system dominated by the
dollar.
Moving other activities such as much of euro derivatives
clearing from London to the bloc dovetails with that objective.
McGuinness said it was likely that more financial jobs would
leave London for the EU, and that assessing UK access would be a
"big body of work" through 2021 and beyond.
"It's not a question of Europe trying to bring everything
back home, not at all. It is a question of Europe ensuring that
at home Europe is strong, and can be strong globally," she said.
(Reporting by Huw Jones;Editing by Kevin Liffey)