Since 1er January and the British exit from the single European market, the City is no longer the leading stock exchange in Europe. Once unthinkable, the change occurred suddenly, mainly to the benefit of Amsterdam. In January, the Dutch market traded on average 9.2 billion euros in shares per day, four times more than a year earlier. Over the same period, that of London traded 8.6 billion euros, half as much as in 2020, according to statistics from CBOE, an American stock exchange platform. Place de Paris remains in third place, its volume still increasing by half, to 6.1 billion euros.
It is both “Of a small earthquake” and “Of an essentially symbolic change”, analyzes Nicolas Véron, specialist in financial issues in the Bruegel and Peterson Institute for International Economics think tanks. Earthquake because no one really predicted the scale and speed of the change. Symbolic because the changeover does not carry with it any relocation of jobs for the moment. In recent decades, the stock markets have lost importance and financial centers are bringing together many other activities.
The fall of the stock market throne occupied by the City is the consequence of a technical but important battle between London and Brussels. With Brexit, the UK lost the “passport” which allowed it to sell financial products across the European Union (EU). Instead, he hoped to obtain regulatory equivalencies, unilaterally awarded by the EU. There are about forty different, and the EU has already granted them to many third countries: the United States has twenty-three, Japan twenty-two, Canada twenty …
With Brexit, the UK lost
the “passport”, which allowed him to sell financial products throughout the European Union
But, for a year, the City has been waiting in vain. In extremis, just before the exit from the single market, Brussels finally granted two, in specialized fields where British know-how is essential (in particular the clearing houses). But that’s all. UK stock exchanges have not been given a match, in particular.
This affront angered Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England. In a speech on Wednesday February 10, he considered that the attitude of Brussels was not ” not acceptable “. Basically, his argument is simple: the UK was still in the single market six weeks ago, its rules have not changed, and it therefore continues to apply European rules exactly. ” [Des standards plus faibles] that this were considered sufficient for Canada, the United States, Australia, Hong Kong and Brazil, which received equivalences ”, accuses Mr. Bailey. According to him, Brussels seeks to make the United Kingdom a regulatory vassal (“A rule-taker”).
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