(Adds background)
LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Andrew
Bailey has told banks to step up their plans for the risk of
Britain failing to reach a post-Brexit trade deal with the
European Union before a deadline at the end of 2020, Sky News
reported on Wednesday.
Bailey held a conference call on Tuesday with Britain's
biggest lenders in which he emphasised that they needed to step
up their plans for a no-deal Brexit, Sky said.
The BoE was not immediately available for comment.
Britain left the EU in January and a transition period ends
on Dec. 31. After that, without a preferential deal, British
banks, insurers and asset managers will be limited to the kind
of access given by the bloc to the United States, Japan and
Singapore.
Britain's financial services minister John Glen said on
Wednesday that the country's financial services industry was
"world class" and was ready for whatever Brexit outcome.
"I continue to believe that we are still well placed as a
sector, whatever the specific outcomes are of negotiations ahead
of us in the second half of this year," he said on a webinar.
A senior European Union official said last week that
Britain's financial services sector should be ready for a
no-deal Brexit.
Britain wants binding commitments from the EU on financial
market access to avoid the country's finance industry suddenly
being cut off from the bloc, a request Brussels has rejected, EU
officials and diplomats said on Tuesday.
(Writing by William Schomberg, editing by Andy Bruce)
