Post-Brexit UK-Swiss insurance deal signed

The UK and Switzerland have signed a deal to ensure insurance businesses from both the countries can continue to trade freely with each other after Brexit.

Existing EU trade rules will be replicated in the new UK-Swiss Direct Insurance Agreement, which was signed today in Davos, Switzerland. The deal, agreed by UK chancellor Philip Hammond and president of the Swiss Confederation and head of the Federal Department of Finance Ueli Maurer, will come into force when the UK leaves the EU on 29th March 2019.

Under the arrangement firms will still be able to branch into each other’s jurisdiction as both countries continue to recognise each other’s insurance regulations.

The UK government’s Treasury said: “It will therefore ensure continuity for UK and Swiss insurers to access each other’s markets both now and in the future, consistent with the terms of the original EU-Swiss Direct Insurance Agreement.”

Switzerland is important to the UK, the Treasury said, because in 2016 investment in the UK’s financial services sector by Swiss businesses was more than £11 billion “making the country one of the world’s largest investors in UK finance - second only to the USA”.
Chancellor Hammond is conducting a series of meetings with leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

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