City of London Corporation policymaker warns of battle to restore credibility after Brexit

The UK will “take years” to re-establish its reputation after Brexit, the City of London’s most senior policymaker said on Monday.

The City of London Corporation policy chair Catherine McGuinness’s warning came with less than four weeks before the UK potentially crashes out of the European Union without a deal.

McGuinness remains “confident about the longer term, but worried about the short term”, and told the Standard that: “I certainly think investment has been deterred by the uncertainty.”

She added: “How are we going to regain our credibility? When I go to India, when I go to China, people do ask about our political stability, although on the other hand they also ask with great interest about the opportunities. I think it’s going to take us years to re-establish our reputation.”

Although temporary arrangements are in place giving London-based clearing houses licences to carry on doing business with European-based customers over the next 12 months even in a no-deal scenario, the corporation is still concerned over the lack of certainty on contract continuity, cross-border data transfers and uncleared derivatives. “There is a potential for an awful lot of disruption depending on how fiercely the regulations are enforced. That’s the worry. I don’t think it is in anybody’s interest to risk it,” she said.

So far job departures from the City are at the lower end of a wide range estimated by consultants Oliver Wyman, which forecast between 3000-4000 and 75,000 job losses depending on the UK’s level of access. McGuinness added: “It is only day one… I am concerned this is not the end of the story but that it is just the start.”

Her comments came despite an upbeat survey of 450 senior executives that said London still has the most appeal as a business hub ahead of New York, Singapore and Paris.