BrexitOct 31 2018

Morgan wants to know how to take back power from Brussels

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Morgan wants to know how to take back power from Brussels

The chairman of the Treasury select committee has said she will soon focus on how the financial services sector should be regulated after Britain leaves the European Union.

Speaking at the annual summit of the Personal Investment Management & Financial Advice Association today (October 31), Nicky Morgan said she would welcome input from the financial advice profession on this issue.

She said: "We are already very much in the market for an inquiry into post-Brexit financial services.

"My instinct is that the story of the next 40 years for this sector is going to be whether we converge or do we diverge.

"I think that is where the evidence from industry will be really important."

Ms Morgan said even if Britain decided to converge with the European Union or diverge to a set of wider global standards, it was not necessarily clear what this would look like.

For example, she said there were already some aspects of the financial services sector which were not equivalent with the European Union, despite Britain being a member, and there were questions about whether this would remain the case.

Ms Morgan said: "The other thing that is going to take up a large amount of Parliamentarians' time is going to be this bringing back of EU law into UK law.

"We do know more powers will come back to the regulators from the EU and we will be very much in the market for hearing whether you have a view on how the regulator is proposing to use those powers."

Ms Morgan's comments come a year after the Financial Conduct Authority's Christopher Woolard warned firms in the financial services sector that a "bonfire of regulations" after Brexit would not be in their interests.

Speaking to the House of Lords European Union justice sub-committee last October, the FCA's executive director of strategy and competition said many standards were now set globally.

Mr Woolard dispelled the idea that post-Brexit Britain could attract business by slashing its regulatory burden.

damian.fantato@ft.com