The City has entered Brexit purgatory, an unpleasant holding period in which the financial services sector doesn't really know where it stands with its European counterparts. We know that passporting has been revoked, but the possibility of equivalence deals remains. The FCA no longer has to abide by the EU’s directives, offering unprecedented room for manoeuvre but has yet to really show its hand.

On the face of it, there are reasons to be optimistic that the UK will seize the opportunity to diverge from EU regulatory standards to create a regime that makes more sense for London than it did for the Continent. Almost a year ago, the Financial Conduct Authority installed Nikhil Rathi as its new chief executive. Rathi has deep experience in the political sphere, having worked at the Treasury himself. Meanwhile, Katharine Braddick — the Treasury official given the unenviable task of negotiating a post-Brexit deal for financial services — is herself a veteran of the Financial Services Authority as it was then, as well as the Prudential Regulation Authority, and has industry experience from her time at the Association of British Insurers.