The Berne Financial Services Agreement is a mature, alignment and recognition deal that replaces regulatory empire building with mutual recognition, and political symbolism with commercial reality, says Tim Focas

New Year is usually a moment for resolutions, reflection and overconfident promises about the year ahead. Politics, by contrast, tends to start January exactly as it ended December, with noise, soundbites and little to show for them.

This year though, something feels different. On New Year’s day, while most of the country was still shaking off the excesses of the night before, one of the most economically meaningful consequences of Brexit quietly went live. No countdown clock, no speeches, no melodrama, just a legal agreement between the second and 16th ranked financial hubs that says far more about the UK’s future than years of political squabbling.

The Berne Financial Services Agreement will never dominate the headlines. However, it really matters precisely because it is boring, technical and grown up. It shows what regulatory independence looks like when it is used properly.

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