During his recent visit to London, finance minister Pierre Gramegna spoke once again about the impact of Brexit on financial services. In an article published by Reuters on 3 May, Gramegna is cited as saying that the “mutual recognition” deal UK banks are looking for has never been done before and that Brussels is not in favour.

In his view, the best way forward it to “revamp” the equivalency system to broaden its scope to take in financial services. “If equivalence plays a much bigger role than it plays today, then we need enhanced equivalence, that means putting on the table how does this equivalence work,” he said.

In a separate article, Gramegna talked about the EU’s proposal to reform financial supervision. He reassured his audience that they are likely to be written in such a way that they will avoid harming how mutual funds in one country are run by asset managers based in another.

Luxembourg is the world’s second biggest investment funds centre, but many of its funds are managed elsewhere. It is therefore keen that no new harmful regulation is put in place.