Mr. Gerry Cross:

Let me start off and my colleague, Ms McMunn will say a little. As members can imagine, as it has been for these Houses, Brexit has been a major component of our work going back two and a half to three years and well before the referendum even. It has been a multifaceted effort. On the one hand, we had the significant inflow of authorisation applications across all of the sectors which has been widely reported on and which has meant that we have had to resource ourselves, organise ourselves and engage very effectively with that suite of applications. Second, we have been making sure that the firms for which we are responsible, namely the large number of regulated firms, are well prepared for Brexit, in all of its many ramifications, whether that is business that they do with the UK, business with Northern Ireland, exposures they may have or readiness for economic consequences and that has been a very major aspect of our supervisory engagement over recent times. Third, we have been addressing the cliff effects that are potentially there, namely the question of what would happen with various legislation and regulations if there was a no-deal Brexit. Particularly over the past nine months to one year, that has been a major part of our work and one which has gone very well. We feel we are in a good position on that. Fourth, right up until the middle of last week, there was a great focus on preparation for what would happen if there was a hard Brexit, how markets would react and what the dynamics would be.

We are pleased that progress is continuing and that work is continuing to try to avoid a hard Brexit. One of the matters we are very focused on is remaining at full readiness. The situation in the UK remains volatile and is hard to predict. In any event, we only have a six month delay if everything goes according to plan so for us it is very important that we, our firms and firms that are doing business in Ireland from outside remain ready and prepared and have their contingency planning in place.