The UK government has confirmed it has no plans to offer any detail on its preferred post-Brexit future for the country's financial services sector, as senior policymakers and City executives press for more clarity. A spokeswoman from the Department of Exiting the European Union said today that it will "keep under review" the best way of making clear how it would like the City to operate after leaving the bloc. It followed reports in the Financial Times that the government had shelved plans to publish a so-called position paper detailing its negotiating stance for financial services in Brexit talks. A government official familiar with the department's thinking said it would be "foolish" to publish a detailed paper outlining the government's thinking just as difficult negotiations over the future trading relationship between the UK and EU are about to start. The government official said: "It would not be sensible at the beginning of what would be very complex negotiations... to give away what we will expect and what we will ask for. That would be foolish." They added: "There isn’t a settled consensus as yet on the future trade relationship. Full stop. And obviously financial services is a massively integral part of that. It genuinely has not been decided yet [if we'll publish a position paper]." The paper has been expected since mid-2017. READ How will Brexit affect the City? Don’t ask the government Nicky Morgan, the chair of the UK parliament's powerful Treasury Committee, last week called for the document to be published “as a matter of urgency” to provide “much-needed certainty”. In December, she told Financial Newsit was incumbent on the government to explain how it intended to protect a sector that paid £72.1bn in tax in the 12 months to March 2017, according to data collated by the City of London Corporation. Catherine McGuinness, who chairs the City of London Corporation's influential policy committee, said the UK financial services sector “urgently” needed more information on the government’s plans to safeguard the industry’s interest during divorce talks. Alasdair Haynes, the chief executive officer at London-based Aquis Exchange, said the City wanted certainty: "What we are getting is uncertainty,” he said. “Even if the news is bad, we need to know what that news is so that people can make decisions for their companies.” But the government official said key decision-makers understood what the City and the financial services was thinking: "There’s been an enormous amount of engagement with the City, with key people." A UK Government spokeswoman said that the official position on financial services could be communicated "in private discussions with the EU, speeches, or a formal position paper". The Brexit secretary David Davis and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond had both set out the UK's considerations for the future relationship in financial services in a series of speeches, the spokeswoman said. "This should involve a stable, mutual arrangement that preserves the benefits of the UK’s and EU’s integrated markets and recognises the unique regulatory alignment between us today," she added. To contact the author of this story with feedback or news, email Lucy McNulty
The British government has said it is not intending to publish its plans for the future of financial services after Brexit. Leading figures in the City of London had been pushing for more details from ministers about their preferred outcome to negotiations over the future of the UK's financial services sector after Brexit. But a Treasury spokesman said: "We are working with our partners on how we can deliver an agreement that works both for Britain and Europe as a whole.