HSBC London Håkan Dahlström/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by)
The result of June’s referendum on whether the UK should leave the EU has exposed limits in assumptions and concepts that strategic planners at financial services (FS) firms – from banks and insurers to dealers and asset managers – must recognise.
These challenges, and the inadequate analysis that can result if they are not acknowledged, have seen an evolution of labels, all trying to capture what sort of new UK-EU relationship a firm should plan for. The term Brexit had a brief legitimate role in tactical planning up to the first few days of market turmoil. Since then an early focus on retaining passport rights has been complemented with a more nuanced set of tasks at an industry level. But still, given that what is good for an industry (from a national viewpoint) may be detrimental at any particular firm, and the possibility that that the government will require a price for securing rights for FS firms, only adds to the huge challenges for strategic planning at the firm level.
