Ian Guider: Has the shift from regulatory light touch to hard line gone too far?

High street European banks won’t fill the gap left by Ulster Bank and KBC: digital challengers and start-ups will be needed for that

The Central Bank is not in the business of promoting financial services and banking. Its chief role is to regulate them. Picture: Bloomberg

Even though he was wearing a mask, it was not hard to see the smile on Emmanuel Macron’s face as he officially unveiled JP Morgan’s new trading hub near the Louvre in Paris at the end of June. Some 440 traders are joining the US bank’s latest European outpost in the French capital, having fled London because of Brexit.

The spoils of Brexit haven’t been all that much in the end, and the reports of ...