Risk of no-trade lists as banks leave Brexit plans late

European clients could face bottleneck of contract transfer requests from relocating banks

Against the clock: banks are at different stages with preparations, but none have put contingency plans fully in motion

A no-deal Brexit could sever trading relationships between London-based banks and their European clients, leading to no-trade lists after March 29, 2019, because banks are reluctant to transfer agreements and contracts from London to continental Europe, and are likely to leave the process too late to complete in time.

“All of the banks say they want to be prepared by March, [but] we’ll see about that,” says a treasurer at a large European corporate. “If the deadline is the end of March, then I