Brussels threat to block City trade unless UK agrees to Europe's rules

“As we’ve seen with the EU’s discussions with the Swiss, the decision as to whether to grant equivalence or adequacy rulings is not a purely technical one and is inherently political,” Sam Lowe, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said.

“Whether the UK’s financial services regime is deemed equivalent to the EU’s, or data protection regime adequate in the eyes of the EU, will depend on the progress made in the broader talks on the future EU-UK trading relationship.”

...“As it stands, it is not obvious what equivalent levers the UK has to pull. In its no-deal plans the UK has already clarified it would provide a unilateral mechanism to allow for European banks to continue selling into the UK, and allow for data of UK citizens to be stored across the EU, for a period of time,” Mr Lowe said.

“The UK’s relative openness, and smaller relative size, means it has fewer buttons to push; although there are certainly some prizes it can offer up, such as access to its fishing waters.”