The costs associated with moving the clearing of complex financial instruments to another financial centre means London is likely to remain the home of the £460tn-a-year business, S&P said. There have been warnings that as many as 100,000 City jobs would be axed if London lost its euro-clearing role, which rival European financial centres were eyeing up jealously even before the result of the 23 June referendum. The vote for Brexit, though, has reopened the debate about London’s role at the heart of a key part of the European financial sector’s machinery. “We believe the first route is likely to be complex, slow and uncertain; the second could be simpler. This is for several reasons, notably the massive extra burden of margin collateral that it could place on market participants,” S&P said.

Source: The Guardian November 17, 2016 18:56 UTC