Financial Conduct Authority chief executive Andrew Bailey has become the latest prominent figure to defend free trade and open markets, and urged regulators to work together to keep improving “patchwork” standards so they can reliably underpin cross-border trade.

Delivering a speech on free trade in financial services at an OMFIF event in London today, a day after UK Prime Minister Theresa May launched a staunch defence of free markets, Bailey spoke of the history of international trade policy.