Yahoo Finance 130 banks to apply for UK licence ahead of Brexit, says Bank of England
At least 130 financial firms are expected to apply for a UK licence ahead of Brexit, a top Bank of England official has said.
Britain's central bank has been digesting more than 400 responses to its call for financial institutions' plans for the UK's withdrawal, including the possibility of a 'no deal' scenario with the EU.
Sam Woods, deputy governor for the Bank of England, told an event in London on Tuesday that he expected "at least 130 applications to be authorised here in the UK".
But he warned EU financial institutions were lagging behind their British counterparts in planning for life after March 2019.
Mr Woods told Reuters' Financial Regulation Summit he would have to decide by Christmas whether to insist EU financial firms in London convert into subsidiaries and come under the jurisdiction of the Bank's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), which he also heads.
He said: “Broadly, come Christmas time, we will need to move into a different mode of receiving applications."
Branch conversions were likely to begin in this timeframe unless the outline of a transition deal was hammered out beforehand, he said.
He added that financial firms based in the UK looking to maintain trade with the EU had made more progress than their counterparts on the Continent.
Converting operations into a UK subsidiary could prove expensive for EU banks as it requires building up capital and reserves locally, rather than relying on a parent company.
