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![\"City](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1710-City-Skyline-City-of-London-Skyline-sky-view-025.jpg\")
\t\tThe UK services sector suffered another jobs decline in December.\t<\/p>\n
2026 will be a year for\u00a0collaborating with international partners to tackle shared challenges, reduce cross-border financing barriers, and promote investment, says Dame Susan Langley<\/p>\n
Henry Ford once said that\u00a0\u201ccoming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, but\u00a0working together is success\u201d.\u00a0As global ambassador for the UK\u2019s financial and professional\u00a0services sector, my goal for 2026 is to ensure we\u2019re not only coming together with our\u00a0international partners, but truly\u00a0working together\u00a0to tackle joint challenges and reach our\u00a0shared goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his first interview of 2026, the Prime Minister said that \u2013 nearly a decade on from the\u00a0Brexit vote \u2013 our relations with the EU are in\u00a0\u201cthe best position they\u2019ve been in ten years\u201d.\u00a0As\u00a0I said when the German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, visited the City during his state\u00a0visit in December, in the current geopolitical and economic environment, we really do need\u00a0a pragmatic approach to our shared challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The FPS industry \u2013 which I am proud to represent as Lady Mayor \u2013 will be essential to this\u00a0mission, with private capital acting as a critical enabler for innovation in areas like defence,\u00a0clean energy, fintech and biotech.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Building on the agreements reached at the EU-UK Summit in May \u2013 and trade deals with the\u00a0likes of South Korea, India and the US \u2013 as well as maintaining healthy competition, we\u00a0must work collaboratively with other financial centres, redoubling our efforts to maximise\u00a0the flow of capital \u2013 both financial and human \u2013 and promote and enable investment in key\u00a0sectors in both directions. \u00a0<\/p>\n
We must also actively work to reduce barriers for cross-border financing, avoid restrictions\u00a0for investment in strategic sectors, and explore new forms of regulatory cooperation. For\u00a0instance, the updated Capital Requirements Directive could block non-EU banks from\u00a0lending into the EU unless they set up local branches. In these testing geopolitical times, the\u00a0EU and the UK should not be scaling down their investment into each other\u2019s economies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Strategic partnerships<\/p>\n