News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on N26 will be leaving the UK. Parent comment

Re:N26 will be leaving the UK by threeseed on Tuesday February 11, 2020 @01:16PM (#22300926)
Not sure if you actually follow Brexit but the situation now is completely different to the last 2 years.

Michael Gove this week formerly advised businesses that the UK is going down the hard Brexit path i.e. leaving the customs union, single market and with full regulatory divergence from the EU.

Under these circumstances it is impossible to run a business like N26 in the UK serving the EU.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:N26 will be leaving the UK by blibble on Tuesday February 11, 2020 @01:41PM (#22301237)
> Under these circumstances it is impossible to run a business like N26 in the UK serving the EU.

you have this the wrong way round: they are a bank based in the EU that was passporting their German (EU) license into the UK

in the near future they will not be permitted to operate in the UK as the UK will no longer accept their EU banking license

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:N26 will be leaving the UK by thu2111 on Tuesday February 11, 2020 @03:21PM (#22302383)
That's not actually certain. The UK has no fundamental reason not to recognise EU banking licenses, although it may choose not to, or to recognise it but require additional compliance.

The UK may end up being 'forced' to not recognise such licenses in retaliation if the EU refuses to recognise British licenses. This is quite likely to happen because the EU has a track record of revoking financial licensing as part of trade wars with European countries. For instance they revoked acceptance of Switzerland's financial licenses as part of trying to pressure the Swiss government to cede significant powers to Brussels.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:N26 will be leaving the UK by blibble on Tuesday February 11, 2020 @04:00PM (#22302787)
> That's not actually certain.

well, you can argue but it's a matter of UK law: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/1149/regulation/2/ma...

the PRA has stated that EEA firms will require a license (with some temporary transition arrangements:

> Passporting rights will now cease at the end of the transition period. Once passporting rights cease, EEA firms currently operating through a passport in the UK under the existing European passport framework will require a Part 4A permission under the Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) to be able to continue carrying out regulated activities in the UK.

see https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/eu-withdrawal/temporary-perm...

> This is quite likely to happen because the EU has a track record of revoking financial licensing as part of trade wars with European countries. For instance they revoked acceptance of Switzerland's financial licenses as part of trying to pressure the Swiss government to cede significant powers to Brussels.

this is the worst example possible you could have given, the result of the loss of equivalence was that the Swiss gained business, while EU firms lost business

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:N26 will be leaving the UK by hakanensari on Tuesday February 11, 2020 @05:38PM (#22303746)
But they appear to be already operating in other non-EU settings. What would make the UK any different?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:N26 will be leaving the UK by apodysophilia on Tuesday February 11, 2020 @02:06PM (#22301517)
They operate in multiple countries that are not part of the EU.
[ Parent | on HN ]