Brexit: leading banks set to pull out of UK early next year

"... the EU's equivalence regime is a poor shadow of passporting -- it only covers a narrow range of services, can be withdrawn at virtually no notice, and will probably mean the UK will have to accept rules it has no influence over. For most banks, equivalence won't prevent them from relocating their operations."

It has been reported that Goldman Sachs is among those drawing up plans to transfer around 2,000 of its employees to a rival European city, should the UK lose its passporting rights.

The industry body TheCityUk has claimed that up to 70,000 financial jobs could be lost if Britain leaves the EU without a new, credible relationship in place for the City of London.