The chancellor has travelled to Brussels where he has signed a deal with the EU on financial services cooperation, two years after it was first agreed.
The deal will set out how the UK and EU plan to cooperate on financial services issues in future, but some experts caution to be "realistic" about what the agreement might achieve.
The government has pledged to share information with the EU, work together towards meeting joint challenges and coordinate on issues ahead of international meetings such as the G7 and G20.
Jeremy Hunt said in a statement: "The UK and EU’s financial markets are deeply interconnected and building a constructive, voluntary relationship is of mutual benefit to us both.
"This agreement with our European partners as sovereign equals builds on our arrangements with the US, Japan and Singapore, helping to support the sector’s role as a global financial services hub."
Together with the professional services sector financial services was worth £275bn last year, making up an estimated 12 per cent of the British economy. Of the £11tn of assets managed in the UK in 2020, about 44 per cent is on behalf of international investors including the EU, the government said, showing the relevance of this deal.
But Gavin Haran, head of policy for asset management at Macfarlanes, cautioned: "This is a positive step but we have to be realistic about what the agreement does and does not do.
"Essentially, the MoU establishes a talking shop for the UK and the EU to discuss matters relating to financial services cooperation between the two jurisdictions, based on the existing EU-US model. It does not compel either side to closer cooperation, such as by agreeing mutual equivalence and ensuring market access.
"Regardless, it is helpful to firms operating across borders that there will be an established forum for the jurisdictions to discuss tricky issues such as divergence, equivalence, and shared standards."
In 2020, when negotiations with the EU began, the government said it was seeking an agreement similar to the type already agreed with the likes of Canada, and one based on "friendly cooperation between sovereign equals".
It said any agreement between the UK and EU after December should provide a "predictable, transparent, and business-friendly environment for cross-border financial services business".
Since then the chancellor has announced a rolling back of EU regulations such as Mifid II and the Packaged Retail and Insurance-Based Investment Products regulation. It will create its own version of investment disclosure rules instead, meaning they will be different to the EU's.
The Edinburgh reforms announced in December 2022 seek to tip the balance towards economic growth and away from the regulatory risk aversion.
