Thousands of Britons living in the EU will have bank accounts in the UK closed by the end of the year due to the lack of a post-Brexit trade deal. About this writes The Guardian.
In December, British financial institutions will lose their pan-European license to provide financial services in the EU. Banks Lloyds, Barclays, and Coutts have already informed private and corporate clients that they will be left without access to their accounts until December 31st.
The National Bank of the Netherlands has confirmed that UK financial institutions will no longer be able to open accounts for clients in the Netherlands. Since there are many rules in each of the 27 member countries of the bloc, a “bureaucratic nightmare” forced a number of financial institutions to simply stop working in some countries.
The UK officially left the EU on 31 January. By the end of this year, the parties have agreed on a transitional period, during which most of the EU laws will continue to operate. However, in July the parties terminated regular negotiations ahead of schedule, without reaching an agreement on a number of issues. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called October 15 the deadline for a new free trade agreement with the European Union.
The consequences of refusing the deal, according to experts, will be “two to three times more destructive” than the consequences of “the worst pandemic.”
