British financial services firms will win right to sell in EU -Johnson

By Dan Burns

NEW YORK, July 22 (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Friday he expects the U.K. to win the right for its financial firms to sell services across European Union member states after Britain's exit from the bloc.

Johnson, speaking to reporters in New York about Britain's business and investment environment, said Britain has been approached by several countries interested in trade deals after U.K. voters chose last month in a referendum to secede from the European Union.

The British government needs to negotiate a new relationship with the EU once London triggers Article 50, the formal start of divorce talks, which could take a year or longer.

Appointed last week to the newly formed Conservative Party government of Prime Minister Theresa May, Johnson was making his first visit to the United States as foreign secretary, including a stop at the United Nations.

Johnson told reporters that he had received reassurances from international companies that Britain remained "very much part" of the global business footprint.

A growing number of U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . companies are broadly conceding that the so-called "Brexit" could weigh on profits.

Wall Street investors were originally rattled by the vote and independent analysts have suggested it could cost U.S. companies billions of dollars in earnings because of currency factors and to lost sales in Europe. Roughly 38 of 63 S&P 500 companies with quarterly conference calls since the end of June have talked about Brexit.

Even (Taiwan OTC: 6436.TWO - news) before the referendum, the prospect of a Brexit outcome was a sufficient threat to the economic outlook to prompt U.S. Federal Reserve monetary policy makers to forestall a possible interest rate increase at their mid-June meeting.

In the aftermath of the referendum, yields on long-dated U.S. government bonds fell to record lows, creating a challenging environment for long-term savers such as pension funds and insurers.

The dollar has strengthened by more than 4 percent against a basket of major trading partner currencies in the four weeks since the referendum. The British pound has shed more than 12 percent of its value against the dollar, while the euro has dropped around 3.7 percent.

The strength of the dollar has been of particular concern because it hurts demand for U.S. products abroad, and Britain is the largest market within the EU for U.S. exporters. In 2015, U.S. companies exported more than $56 billion of goods and services to the United Kingdom and nearly $273 billion to the full EU trading bloc. (Reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Grant McCool)