Brexit is a losing game for post-trade within the UK and the EU in terms of infrastructure, according to a panellist at the 12th Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) Post Trade Conference.
When discussing post-trade reform agendas, one panellist said that as the current Brexit withdrawal deal stands, there is no good to come from it for the UK and indicated that Europe and Asia will probably benefit the most.
Another panellist said that as the current Brexit withdrawal deal stands, “there is no good to come from Brexit for the UK” and she also indicated that Europe and Asia will probably benefit the most.
Another panellist emphasised that Brexit has brought a “work and cost without any benefit” and further indicated he was not “entirely sure what impact it will have”. The panellist said: “There is a lethal threat behind not being ready for it.”
Staying on the topic of post-trade, the panellists mostly agreed that a lot of progress has been made but it was important to ensure public entities have control of this space and one highlighted that the European Central Bank could do a “little more”.
The panel also discussed T2S and how costs have increased. One panellist affirmed he was sceptical at the introduction of T2S but had witnessed more “pros” than “cons”.
He said: “T2S did a lot of great things, but still needs to push through some changes”, but he said he understood “total changes take time and money resources”.
“We need to give time for T2S to work. By 2025 we will see if we have to move or not, based on new technologies, key questions and additional services.”
Meanwhile, another panellist said: “If I look at the typical European way of dealing with actions, it's inevitably a reluctance to deal with legacy and a wrong assumption that competition will somehow change what happened at the start. But if that happens, people will move away from our industry space because they won’t be able to make ends meet.”
He added: “The US model is good. I’m not proposing we introduce it here [in the UK], but there’s this hope that competition will sort it all out, but it won’t. No one is going to vote to put themselves out of business.”
