UK banks face renewed French push to stiffen MiFID access rule

Some EU countries are hesitant to join with France, in part because there

BRUSSELS: France doubled down on a proposal that would make it harder for UK banks to do business in the European Union after Brexit.

With time running short in the divorce talks, France stepped up its push for a tightening of the MiFID II rules on how firms outside the bloc can gain access to EU financial markets. The UK is vying to protect London’s status as Europe’s financial hub, while France has pushed hard for companies to move staff and business lines into the EU. In a working paper, French diplomats in Brussels renewed a proposal that non-EU firms be forced to set up a branch in the bloc overseen by EU regulators, saying that the current so-called equivalence rules have “significant shortcomings.”