Financial services under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement: reflections on unfinished business for the EU and UK

This paper examines the implications of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement for financial services. It outlines the major features of the TCA as regards financial services and considers the limitations of the TCA as regards securing access by UK financial services firms to the EU financial market. Given these limitations, the paper reviews the major access routes to the EU financial market which EU law makes available for UK financial services firms and addresses in particular the future for the ‘equivalence’ regime. The paper concludes by identifying lessons which can be learned from the treatment of financial services under the TCA and from the recent development of the equivalence regime.