Dr. Christy Ann Petit:

I will be brief. On the point about trade and data, we retrieved data from 2021. The EU is indeed the UKs largest trading partner with 46.2% of the share in goods, imports plus exports, whereas the UK is the third largest partner for the EU. This is data from 2021 which was still possible to trace. However, from this year onwards, it is much more difficult because there are data collection issues and also the statistics reporting mechanisms are being changed on both sides. As a result, it is much more difficult to compare with previous years and to trace back differences as a result of Brexit.

The second point is on the financial services sector. The city of London has been the main point for the financial services sector for the EU. From qualitative evidence, not quantitative, and from interactions with industry, I have been told that there is no big shift at an international level. The UK continues to have a strong connection for financial services with the EU Single Market.

My final point is that the EU is concluding more and more partnership agreements or equivalence regimes with third countries apart from the UK to manage the situation once the unique equivalence regime that exists at the moment for clearing services comes to an end probably in 2024 or 2025.