• May 2018 verdict on impact of Brexit on UK economy – The big news over the past month was the Bank of England delaying raising interest rates, triggering a sharp fall in the value of sterling to the lowest levels this year. The pound has slumped by almost 6c against the dollar, as traders in the City bet against Threadneedle Street raising the cost of borrowing as much as previously thought over the course of this year. While the economy was knocked off course by snow earlier this year, the fading inflationary impact from the fall in the pound straight after the Brexit vote may also have deterred the Bank. The pound has fallen 4% over the past month. Fears over the creation of a new Italian government also threatened to unsettle markets. British households are more than £900 worse off since the Brexit vote, according to the governor of the Bank of England, who also said the economy was as much as 2% smaller than forecasted before the Brexit vote. (The Guardian)
  • Treasury and BoE clash over post-Brexit regulation – The Treasury and Bank of England are at loggerheads over the future of City of London regulation after Brexit. Chancellor Philip Hammond wants to keep Britain close to the EU rule book to ensure maximum access for City institutions to the European market, while the BoE is opposing any compromise that would leave it as “a rule taker”. A “mutual recognition” plan that would have given the BoE the regulatory autonomy it seeks has been declared dead at the outset by EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, while the BoE believes that Mr Hammond, in the hope of securing an EU trade agreement in financial services, is willing to sign up to a deal that would give Brussels significant sway over the City. (The FT)
  • UBS recruits UK’s ex-EU commissioner Jonathan Hill as Brexit adviser – Jonathan Hill has joined UBS as an adviser to Switzerland’s biggest bank, making Britain’s former representative at the European Commission the latest senior politician to take a lucrative role at a large financial institution. His appointment may revive criticism of the revolving door between politics and the City of London, which surfaced recently over Goldman Sachs’s hiring of former European Commission president José Manuel Barroso and BlackRock’s appointment of former UK chancellor George Osborne. (The FT)