The Conservative MP Nicky Morgan has asked the Bank of England to provide comprehensive details of the City’s readiness for a hard Brexit, in an early indication of the agenda she hopes to pursue as head of one of parliament’s most influential committees.
The newly elected chair of the Treasury select committee also called on the Bank to provide its views on what a Brexit transition deal should look like to minimise damage to the City. An analysis by the consultancy firm Oliver Wyman calculated that up to 40,000 jobs in the wholesale banking sector – which provides services to companies – could be at risk.
Morgan issued her request to Sam Woods, a deputy governor at the Bank, which had given hundreds of banks, insurers, fund managers and other major City firms a deadline of July 14 to demonstrate how they would cope with a hard Brexit.
Morgan told Woods that the committee – which is still being constituted and will not meet until the autumn – may want to consider the implications for financial services of the UK leaving the EU and that she wants him to provide the information, without providing specifics about each firm, by Wednesday.
