BoE governor Bailey tells bank chiefs to step up plans for WTO Brexit
Downing Street said this week that the prime minister was likely to hold talks with Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, by the end of the month.
In his pre-appointment hearing with MPs, Mr Bailey said a WTO outcome would increase trade barriers relative to a comprehensive free trade agreement, saying the absence of measures to ease restrictions was"likely to make trade more costly or difficult relative to a comprehensive FTA, reducing trade flows and foreign direct investment".
Insiders said that executives from Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, the taxpayer-backed lender, participated in the call with Mr Bailey. Privately, bankers say they are well-equipped to deal with an exit from the EU on WTO terms, although the overlapping COVID-19 pandemic will inevitably intensify the strain on board agendas and on their balance sheets.
In December 2018, the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee published its analysis of what effectively amounted to the UK leaving the EU on WTO terms, saying it had"reviewed a disorderly Brexit scenario, with no deal and no transition period, that leads to a severe economic shock".
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