Will Brexit reverse the centralizing momentum of global finance?

The UK’s EU referendum, in calling for separation from cross-border entanglements, marked a caesura in the intensive integration project of the European Union (EU). A key facet of this three-decade-long effort has been the integration and harmonization of financial trading and services at EU international financial centres (IFCs). The process of harmonizing global finance – that is, those financial activities that involve counterparties in two or more countries – has been occurring worldwide, compelled both by the increasingly severe financial crises of recent years and by these centres’ exponentially rising financial volume/capacity. The Brexit vote has generated substantial uncertainty about the future of global finance in Europe. Yet does this vote constitute the beginning of a reverse trend away from the globalization of financial activities?