Financial services firms that do not put Brexit plans into action by March risk being "left high and dry", a senior policymaker at Germany's central bank has warned, as the City anxiously waits for clarity over a transition period.

Andreas Drombet, a veteran banker who sits on the board of Deutsche Bundesbank, said today that there were "high hopes" in the financial services industry that a transition phase would be agreed and that it would usher in "certainty on the shape of relations" between the UK and the European Union. However, he cast doubt on whether this would actually happen.